(23 Oct 2018) Friends of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have expressed concern about his possible disappearance from the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul.
However the consulate insisted on October 4th 2018 that the missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post left its building before disappearing.
This directly contradicted Turkish officials who said they believe the writer is still inside.
Khashoggi's friend and head of Turkish Arab Journalists Association Turan Kislakci said their concerns were raised yesterday after Saudi consulate's statement.
Khashoggi, who wrote columns critical of the Kingdom's crown prince for The Washington Post, went missing after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the newspaper and his supporters said this week.
A statement from Saudi Arabia later said Khashoggi left immediately after visiting the consulate, though supporters say his fiancée waited for hours for him outside October 2nd before calling for help.
A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Wednesday that authorities believed the journalist is still there.
Khashoggi, 59, is a longtime Saudi journalist, foreign correspondent, editor and columnist whose work has been controversial in the past within the Saudi 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.
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Police who searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul found evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, a high-level Turkish official said October 16th.
The development comes as authorities prepared to search the consul's residence nearby after the diplomat left the country.
Security forces began setting up barricades in front of the residence just hours after Consul Mohammed al-Otaibi flew out of the country on a 2 p.m. (1100GMT) flight, state media reported.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the consul left the country, two weeks after Khashoggi disappeared at the diplomatic post he ran.
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Turkish police forensic teams arrived to search the Saudi consul's residence in Istanbul on October 17th in an effort to discover the truth behind the disappearance of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
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The killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi dominated newspaper headlines in Turkey on October 22nd.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that details of Khashoggi's killing "will be revealed in all its nakedness" in a speech in parliament on October 22nd, the same day a glitzy investment forum in Riyadh spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to take place.
Saudi Arabia's explanation that Khashoggi was killed in a "fistfight" and 18 Saudis have been detained has been met with international scepticism and allegations of a cover-up designed to absolve Prince Mohammed of direct responsibility.
Turkish media reports and officials say a 15-member Saudi team flew to Istanbul, laid in wait for Khashoggi at the consulate and then cut off his fingers, killed and dismembered the 59-year-old writer.
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President Donald Trump is criticizing the Saudi operation that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but says he is waiting for more facts from U.S. officials traveling in the region, "if what happened happened and if the facts check out and it's something that's very bad."
On October 23rd Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he's expecting a full report on the killing soon.
CIA Director Gina Haspel is in Turkey to review the case of the slain Saudi writer Khashoggi
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