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Saudis initially planned to kill Khashoggi in countryside villa, not consulate: Report
Saudis initially planned to kill Khashoggi in countryside villa, not consulate: Report
The Saudi hit squad’s initial plan was to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a villa in Turkey’s northwestern province of Yalova instead of the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, daily Milliyet reported Nov. 28. Click through for the story in photos...
Turkish police searched two villas in Yalova’s Samanlı village during a 10-hour probe on Nov. 26.
The villas were owned by Saudi businessmen Mohammed Ahmed al-Fawzan, who is reportedly a close friend of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Abdulaziz Ibrahim al-Omary.
Citing anonymous police sources, daily Milliyet reported Nov. 28 that the Saudi hit squad had initially planned to bring Khashoggi to one of the two villas in Yalova to kill him.
“They later decided to commit the murder at the consulate, which was diplomatically protected,” the report said.
The Istanbul public prosecutor in charge of the investigation said on Nov. 26 that one of the Saudi suspects, Mansour Othman M. Abahussain, spoke to al-Fawzan on the phone a day before Khashoggi’s killing.
Al-Fawzan was not in Turkey at the time but the prosecutor believed the phone call was intended to find a way to remove or hide Khashoggi’s body after its dismemberment.
The businessman, who bought the land on which the villa is built on in 2014, left Turkey before the murder and did not enter the country again in the past two months.
It was not immediately clear whether the owner of the second villa, al-Omary, is still doing business in Turkey through his Turkish-registered food company Omary Tourism Gida.
Large portraits of the crown prince and King Salman could be seen hanging on a wall inside al-Fawzan’s villa, which was searched by crime scene investigators using sniffer dogs and drones on Nov. 26.
Turkish police did not find any criminal evidence in the villas, its wells or surroundings, according to local media reports.
Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post, was strangled and dismembered by a team of 15 Saudi officials after he went into Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate on Oct. 2.
Khashoggi’s body has not been found although police have searched the consulate, the consul general’s residence and a forest in Istanbul.
There have been reports that Khashoggi’s body was cut up and dissolved in acid.
After weeks of denial, Riyadh admitted Khashoggi, 59, was killed in what it described as a rogue operation, denying claims the crown prince ordered his death.
A former insider turned dissident, Khashoggi had written critical editorials of the kingdom and once compared the crown prince to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the murder was ordered by the highest levels of the Saudi government but insisted King Salman was not to blame.
Click through for more photos from the police search...
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