Turkey summons Saudi envoy over missing journalist
ANKARA
Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Ankara was invited to Foreign Ministry on Oct. 3 to take information on the case of a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post who visited the Saudi consulate and disappeared afterwards, Foreign Ministry sources told Hürriyet Daily News.
Ambassador Walid Bin Abdul Karim El Khereiji was summoned to the ministry upon disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
In a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the consulate did not challenge that Khashoggi, 59, had disappeared while on a visit to the diplomatic post.
"The consulate confirmed that it is carrying out follow-up procedures and coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he left the consulate building," the statement said, without elaborating.
Turkish Presidential Spokesperson told reporters Oct. 3 night that authorities believed the journalist was still there.
"According to the information we have, this person who is a Saudi citizen is still at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul," İbrahim Kalın said.
On Oct. 2, Khashoggi entered the consulate to get paperwork he needed in order to be married next week, said his Turkish fiancee Hatice, who gave only her first name for fear of retribution.
"I don’t know what has happened to him. I can’t even guess how such a thing can happen to him," she told The Associated Press.
Khashoggi is a longtime Saudi journalist, foreign correspondent, editor and columnist whose work has been controversial in the past in the ultraconservative Sunni kingdom. He went into a self-imposed exile in the United States following the ascension of Prince Mohammed, now next in line to the throne to his father, the 82-year-old King Salman.
Saudis insist missing Post contributor left Turkey consulate
