Saudi Prosecutors: Khashoggi Killing Was Premeditated

By Louis Nelson, Politico

25 October 18

rosecutors in Saudi Arabia conceded Thursday that the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate was premeditated, once again altering the Saudi government’s official account of the killing.

“General Prosecution: Information from the Turkish side affirms that the suspects in Khashoggi's case premeditated their crime,” the Saudi Press Agency, which is controlled by the government, wrote on its English-language Twitter account Thursday morning.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who has written critically of the Saudi royal family, was last seen earlier this month entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. His death inside the consulate has been aggressively investigated by the Turkish government, a regional rival of the Saudi monarchy.

Initially, the Saudi government denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts, insisting that the journalist had departed its Istanbul consulate through another door, although it failed to provide corroborating video.

The Saudi government later conceded that Khashoggi had been killed inside its consulate but that the death had been an accident, the result of an argument that escalated into a fistfight. Throughout, the Arab kingdom has insisted that neither King Salman nor Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were involved in any way in the Saudi-born journalist’s death.

The evolving explanations from the Saudi government have been met with widespread skepticism, especially given the control the kingdom’s leadership exerts over its security apparatus. In the killing's aftermath, several prominent business and government leaders pulled out of a high-profile conference held this week in Riyadh, where the crown prince received standing ovations at both of the appearances he made.

President Donald Trump, who initially seemed inclined to accept the Saudi denials, has appeared to grow more skeptical in recent days, labeling the aftermath of the killing the "worst cover-up ever” and declining to rule out the possibility that the crown prince was aware of the operation.

Still, Trump has resisted calls to scale back the sale of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia, warning that such a step could be disastrous for the U.S. economy. Despite the president’s warnings, lawmakers from both parties on Capitol Hill have suggested that they could block future arms sales to the Arab kingdom.