Sneakers exposed Khashoggi’s body double: Turkish columnist

ISTANBUL

A Saudi operative failed in his attempt to deceive Turkish security officials by wearing the clothes of journalist Jamal Khashoggi because he did not bother changing his shoes, according to a police source cited by daily Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi on Oct. 23.

Just hours after Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, a man strolled out of the diplomatic post apparently wearing the columnist’s clothes as part of a macabre deception to sow confusion over his fate, according to surveillance video leaked Oct. 22

“The perpetrators [of the killing] forgot one thing. Khashoggi’s body double was exposed because of his sneakers. Khashoggi was wearing derby shoes when he entered the consulate, not sneakers. The first difference spotted by the police team who watched the security camera footage was the shoes,” Selvi wrote. “There is no perfect murder,” he added.

The new video broadcast by CNN, as well as a Turkish newspaper’s report that a member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage made four calls to the royal’s office from the consulate around the same time, put ever-increasing pressure on the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Turkish crime-scene investigators swarmed a garage Oct. 22 night in Istanbul where a Saudi consular vehicle had been parked.

All this came on the eve of Prince Mohammed’s high-profile investment summit in Riyadh, which has seen a raft of the world’s top business leaders decline to attend over the slaying of the writer for The Washington Post.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said he would not attend the conference, met with the crown prince on Oct. 22 night. The Saudi foreign ministry tweeted out a photo of the two men meeting, and U.S. Treasury spokesman Tony Sayegh said in a separate tweet that Mnuchin raised the Kashoggi investigation in his discussions with the crown prince.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has promised that details of Khashoggi’s killing “will be revealed in all its nakedness” in an address he’ll make before parliament on Oct. 23.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Oct. 23 the kingdom was committed to a "comprehensive investigation" of the killing.

“We are faced with a situation in which it was a brutally planned (killing) and efforts were made to cover it up,” said Ömer Çelik, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). “God willing, the results will be brought into the open, those responsible will be punished and no one will dare think of carrying out such a thing again.”

The kingdom’s announcement Oct. 20 that Khashoggi died in a “fistfight” was met with international skepticism and allegations of a cover_up to absolve the 33--year-old crown prince of direct responsibility.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Oct. 22 that he was “not satisfied with what I’ve heard,” regarding Khashoggi’s death. He added: “We will know very soon.”