‘It is like Pulp Fiction,’ a security source claims
New allegations have emerge about Riyadh’s link to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing a week ago after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, intending to get paperwork that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancée.
According to a senior Turkish official who spoke to The New York Times, the 15-member Saudi intelligence team killed Khashoggi and dismembered his body with a bone saw inside the consulate in Istanbul, on orders from the highest levels of the royal court.
“It is like Pulp Fiction,” the official described.
The official described the situation in which Mr. Khashoggi was killed within two hours as a “quick and complex” operation.
Saudi Special Forces officers, intelligence officials, national guards and a forensics expert, including the head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics Dr. Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy, were allegedly among the intelligence team, who later smuggled the body out of the country.
Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia last year saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Saudi policy over the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent, and since then wrote columns for the Washington Post newspaper.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday called on Riyadh to prove its claim that Khashoggi, left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, while the Washington called on Saudi Arabia to support an investigation into his disappearance.
Saudi Arabia has dismissed claims that it killed or abducted Khashoggi as baseless accusations.
