Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
The Saudi Public Prosecution received information from the Turkish side through the Joint Working Team, which indicates that the suspects in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi had committed their act with a “premeditated intention,” the Saudi General Attorney said in an official statement on October 25.
“The Public Prosecution continues its investigations with the accused in the light of what it has received and the results of its investigations to reach facts and complete the course of justice,” the General Attorney added in its statement, which was released by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
This new Saudi narrative contradicts with the first statement of the Public Prosecution, which claimed that Khashoggi was murdered during what was described as a “quarrel and a brawl” with personnel he met in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
However, this new narrative matches the information revealed by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stated on October 22 that the murder of Khashoggi was pre-planned. This shift in the Saudi investigation may be a sign that Ankara and al-Riyadh had reached an agreement to cover the crime in a way or another.
Since the disappearance of Khashoggi on October 2, Saudi Arabia has changed its arrive multiple times. Despite of these clear attempts to deceive the public, the Kingdom’s allies are yet to take any real action to make sure that the truth will be revealed. In turn, Washington has made a few attempts to support Saudi Arabia in this case.
