by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Yalova City (Turkey) : Turkish forensic officers have begun searching a luxury villa in Yalova, a city southeast of Istanbul, after launching an investigation there as part of a hunt for evidence that might lead to the remains of murdered Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
A large contingent of forensic investigators arrived in various vehicles at the palatial villa close to the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara looking for clues as to the whereabouts of the Washington Post columnist who was killed in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, Xinhua news agency reported.
Khashoggi, 59, had attended the consulate to deal with the paperwork for his impending marriage.
Irfan Fidan, chief prosecutor for Istanbul who heads the investigation into Khashoggi, ordered the search of the mansion, some 60 miles from Istanbul.
Local newspaper Hurriyet said the mansion belonged to a Saudi businessman and that a second property adjacent to it was also being searched.
Khashoggi’s disappearance has heightened tensions between Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities have arrested 18 persons over Khashoggi’s killing and brought criminal charges against 11 of them.
Five of those arrested could face execution, authorities said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Washington : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the CIA had not reached a “definitive” conclusion about who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, despite press reports saying that the agency has determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the hit.
The CIA has “nothing definitive” on the crown prince’s involvement in the killing, Trump said in a statement released Tuesday, adding that “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t! That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,”
Trump clearly suggested in his statement that Saudi oil production was a key factor in his decision not to acknowledge the CIA’s analysis, noting that after the US, “Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world.” Efe reported.
“They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels — so important for the world,” he said.
The president also said that his decision was made in the “absolute security and safety of America,” emphasising that Riyadh is very important to Washington in the “fight against Iran” and maintaining the kingdom as a partner is vital to “our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!”
“Very simply it is called America First!” the statement reads in closing.
Khashoggi, who was a columnist for The Washington Post, died October 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain documents enabling him to marry his Turkish fiancee.
Weeks later, the Saudi government acknowledged that he was killed inside the consulate and last Thursday the kingdom’s attorney general announced he would seek the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects charged in connection with the journalist’s death.
In a press conference in Riyadh, Saud al-Mojeb insisted that the crown prince had not had any prior knowledge of the operation, whose original aim was to bring Khashoggi back to Riyadh.
Trump awaited a CIA report on Tuesday about Khashoggi’s murder, which, according to media accounts, contains the conclusion that MbS, as the crown prince is known, had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
Long a member of the Saudi establishment, Khashoggi became estranged from the government as a result of his criticism of the crown prince and had been living in self-imposed exile in the US since 2017.
In his statement, Trump made light of the CIA’s conclusion and even seemed to contest it when he said of the crown prince that “maybe he didn’t” have any knowledge of the tragic event, and made it clear he was not planning any punitive measures against Saudi Arabia related to the case.
“The US intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region,” Trump said.
“I understand there are members of Congress who, for political or other reasons, would like to go in a different direction — and they are free to do so. I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America,” he said.
The statement, apparently dictated by Trump and full of exclamation points, begins with his “America First” slogan, followed by a warning that “The world is a very dangerous place!” and a tirade against Iran’s activities in the Middle East.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
King Salman has assured Salah Khashoggi that those involved in the murder would be brought to justice
Washington : The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi issued an emotional appeal for the return of their father’s body, in their first interview since he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October.
Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi, who called their father “courageous, generous and very brave”, told CNN on Sunday night they endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death.
“I really hope that whatever happened wasn’t painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death,” Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told the news channel during a sit-down interview in here with his brother, Salah, 35.
Without their father’s body, the brothers said that their family was unable to grieve or find closure.
“All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family,” Salah said.
“I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon.”
Authorities in Turkey, who believe that Khashoggi was murdered by a hit squad sent from Riyadh, were still searching for the journalist’s remains.
Last week, the chief prosecutor’s office said Khashoggi’s body was dismembered after he was strangled, while the Washington Post reported investigators were looking into the theory that the body was dissolved in acid.
The Saudi Royal Palace has denied any knowledge of the body’s whereabouts.
Abdullah and Salah told CNN that their father had been misunderstood and intentionally misrepresented for political reasons.
“Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone,” Salah said, describing the late Washington Post columnist as a genuine, happy person and an “amazing” father.
“I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don’t agree with.
“Public opinion is important… But my fear is that it’s being over politicized. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth,” he added.
According to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times, Khashoggi was labelled as a Muslim Brotherhood sympathiser and a dangerous Islamist in phone calls the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had with Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, and John Bolton, National Security Adviser.
“It’s just labels and people not doing their homework properly, and reading his article and going in depth. It’s easier to stick a label on him,” Abdullah said, when asked about the Muslim Brotherhood claim.
Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied: “As a moderate man who has common values with everyone… A man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential.
“Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through.”
Reflecting on their father’s career as a journalist, the brothers said their father was “like a rock and roll star” when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia.
Salah, the eldest sibling, has been made the principal family point of contact by the Saudi government. Abdullah, who lives in the United Arab Emirates was the last of the slain journalist’s children to see him alive.
They have two sisters, Noha, 27 and Razan, 25.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Riyadh : Saudi Arabia has confirmed that missing journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi died in a fist fight involving more than a dozen Saudi officials at the country’s consulate in Istanbul, the media reported on Saturday.
A statement carried on Saudi state TV on Friday night was the first official confirmation of Khashoggi’s death in Turkey 18 days ago, and the first acknowledgment by Saudi Arabia of its role in it, reports CNN.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses deep regret at the painful developments that have taken place in this case and affirms the commitment of the authorities in the Kingdom to bring the facts to the attention of the public and to hold accountable all those involved,” it said.
The statement conceded that Khashoggi died as a result of the altercation after he had come to the consulate to obtain paperwork needed for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.
Five high-ranking officials have been removed from their posts, including the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence service, and 18 Saudis have been detained, it added.
Khashoggi disappeared after going to the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul at about 1.15 p.m. on October 2 to obtain the paperwork. She raised the alarm just before 5 p.m, while she was still waiting outside.
According to Saudi state media, citing official sources, the public prosecutor’s office investigated a number of suspects based on the information they received from Turkish authorities.
Preliminary investigations showed a suspect went to Istanbul to meet with Khashoggi with the possible intention of bringing the journalist to the Kingdom.
The Saudis have set up a commission, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that will restructure the Saudi general intelligence directorate and will have one month to release a report, state TV said.
The commission will consist of national security officials, the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he found the Saudi claim credible, CNN said.
He called the official statement from Riyadh a “good first step” and said talks with Saudi officials would continue, including raising some questions about their account of events.
“I think we’re getting close to solving a very big problem,” Trump said.
He added that Saudi Arabia has been a “great ally in the Middle East”, but that “what happened is unacceptable”.
Trump said he would work with Congress to develop a response to Khashoggi’s death, but said that he didn’t want sanctions to affect US arms sales to the Kingdom.
Trump said he would withhold a fuller comment until he speaks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia has been under intense pressure since Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Turkish officials, mostly speaking privately, have released a steady stream of gory details about what happened to the journalist at the consulate. They said he was killed soon after he entered the embassy, and his body dismembered.
None of the Saudi statements however, give any clue as to what happened to Khashoggi’s remains.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, World
Washington : The Washington Post has published the last article written by its missing Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in which he wrote about the poor state of press freedom across the Arab world.
Khashoggi’s editor, Karen Attiah, received the column from the journalist’s translator one day after his disappearance on October 2.
“The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen,” Attiah said on Wednesday.
“Khashoggi’s last column titled “What the Arab world needs most is freedom of expression”, espoused the cause that animated most of his life: free expression in the Arab world”.
“Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media,” including the internet, so the region “is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power”, Khashoggi wrote.
He added that the Arabs “are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives”.
In his final article, the journalist who left Saudi Arabia where he held comfortable positions in the ruling establishment, and moved to Washington where he began contributing columns to The Post, called for “the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda”.
In 2016, he had warned against the regime of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, about “an overly enthusiastic embrace of then-President-elect Donald Trump”.
In the columns he published in The Washington Post before his disappearance, Khashoggi offered a consistent message: “Saudi Arabia desperately needed the liberalizing reforms being promised by Mohammed bin Salman, but they could not be combined with repression.”
“Replacing old tactics of intolerance with new ways of repression is not the answer,” he wrote in an article in April .
Khashoggi has been missing since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to pick up documents for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.
Unconfirmed reports said that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the compound, a claim denied by Saudi officials as “baseless”.
—IANS
