Wednesday 24 October 2018

Khashoggi’s death is radioactive for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince | Financial Times

Khashoggi’s death is radioactive for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince | Financial Times:

Saudi Arabia’s latest explanation for the death of Jamal Khashoggi — that he was killed in a “fist-fight” with “rogue” operators lying in wait at its Istanbul consulate — is beneath contempt. After more than two weeks of lies, Riyadh has acknowledged the killing but wrapped it in a preposterous story that cannot survive even the scrutiny of US president Donald Trump, an unstinting fan of the Saudi royal family and its riches, who has called it “ the worst cover-up ever”.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Khashoggi’s killing as a premeditated murder by a Saudi hit-squad. Mr Erdogan, an unlikely champion of press freedom, is now orchestrating what has turned into a spectacularly global crisis, subjecting Mohammed bin Salman, the young Saudi crown prince who is accused of ordering Khashoggi’s liquidation, to death by a thousand leaks.

Turkish intelligence sources have drip-fed local and international media with alleged details of how Khashoggi — who settled in the US last year as a columnist for the Washington Post after the crown prince’s office silenced him — was lured to the Istanbul consulate and then murdered and dismembered.

No comments:

Post a Comment