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On October 2, 2018, an incident had taken place at Consulate
General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, Turkey. Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabian
journalist, was disappeared after he entered the building of Consulate General.
He was once a prominent reporter of Saudi Arabian media. Although he was never
an anti-government journalist, he issued an article criticizing the royal
family of Saud. He was summoned by the authorities. Feeling danger on his life,
Khashoggi moved to the US leaving his family in Saudi Arabia. It is de facto
political asylum. He became the columnist of the Washington Post. The then
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Washington was Prince Khalid Bin Salman, the son
of King Salman and a younger brother of Crown Prince Muhammad. He had been an
Air Force pilot once.
Mr.
Khashoggi visited the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia for the divorce procedure
with his wife. He accompanied with a Turkish girlfriend who was going to be a
new wife. He entered the building alone. She had been waiting in front of the
Consulate General. However, girlfriend had suspicion that he did not come out
no matter how long she waited him. She went to the police station and appealed
the situation. She had been advised by Khashoggi that If he could not show up
after passing considerable time she should report to the police[1].
In
response to the inquiries from the local police, Saudi consular office
explained that he went out from the back door. But no witnesses founded. When
the police asked for further explanation, the consular office showed the video
record of the surveillance camera that took a picture of the person wearing his
clothes left from the back door. But there was no information about him furthermore.
Police suspected that Mr. Khashoggi was still detained in the Consulate.
The media around the world became enthusiastic in this report.
They speculated that Khashoggi had been detained inside the Saudi consulate or
Saudi government secretly abducted him to Saudi Arabia. Turkish government was
untouchable to the consulate premise due to diplomatic privileges. After collecting
the related information, it turned out that nearly ten Saudis with the
diplomatic passport arrived Turkey and entered the Consulate General few days
ago[2].
Although the incident took place in a foreign consulate which was
untouchable from the Turkish authority, Turkey government investigated with its
prestige. An extraordinary tragedy occurred within Saudi territory. There was a
recording tape showing the decisive evidence. The tape was leaked to the local
media. It vividly showed what happened between Khashoggi and the officials from
Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials intensely pressed and interrogated him in a room of
the consulate. At the end of the tape, a moaning of a person who seemed to be
Khashoggi was heard. After the silence for a while a person seemed to be the
leader phoned to Saudi Arabia. He explained the result to his boss at home and asked
for instructions[3].
It would be sure that the conversation was recorded through tap
which was equipped by Turkish intelligence agency. It is common sense of
diplomacy to tap in the embassy or consulate. Tapping is common at any embassy.
Therefore, it is also common that the embassy itself often provides a
soundproof room to keep the secrets of conversations or meetings from the
espionage by host country. In Khashoggi’s case subject was the issuance of
divorce certificates and he was a journalist. It might be the reason why an
ordinary room was used instead of soundproof room.
Saudi officials continued ambiguous explanation, but finally they failed
to conceal it. They explained that after the quarrel with Mr. Khashoggi they
mistakenly let him die. The recording tape had told that the cause of death of
Mr. Khashoggi was an intentional murder due to torture. But the Saudi side
insisted on negligence.
Another question was raised about where Mr. Khashoggi’s body was. The
Saudi side explained that the body was cut in pieces and carried them out in embassy’s
vehicle. They handed the cutting pieces to collaborators of the Saudi
government in Istanbul. They explained that they never knew aftermath. They
never disclosed the name of the collaborators, the place of delivery, the
delivery method and so on.
Concerned Saudi officials were subordinates of Crown Prince
Muhammad bin Salman. So the international opinion concluded that the Crown
Prince had to instruct the murder directly. But the Saudi government strongly
denied and claimed that the incident happened by negligence. Crown Prince
himself has kept silence in public and appealed for innocence by telephone with
some foreign dignitaries like President Trump in US, who supported him.
I would like to verify this strange incident; the dealings of
Saudi Arabia government, the response of the Turkish government and Qatar
government which are severely in anti-Saudi campaign, and the reaction of
governments of China or European countries.
(cont’d)
Please tell us your comments and opinions on this matter.
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: Arehakazuya1@gmail.com
[1] ‘Where is Jamal Khashoggi? Mystery deepens as
Turkey summoned Saudi envoy’ on 2018/10/5, The Peninsula (Qatar)
[2] Turkish
paper publishes photos of Saudi 'squad' sent to target Jamal Khashoggi’ on
2018/10/10,
The Peninsula(Qatar)
[3] ‘Tapes
show Saudi journalist 'decapitated': Turkish daily’ on 2018/10/17, The
Peninsula(Qatar)
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