Posted on 10/06/2018 9:38:07 PM PDT by robowombat
ISTANBUL — Turkey has concluded that Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist from Saudi Arabia, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this week by a Saudi team sent “specifically for the murder,” two people with knowledge of the probe said Saturday.
Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia. It was a preplanned murder,” said one of the people. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
They offered no specific evidence to back up the account. Earlier Saturday, however, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office had opened a probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance. Turkish authorities have said that Khashoggi never left the consulate
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’ve heard more speculation that Khashoggi may have been CIA informant
The amount of compensation is based on the percentage of responsibility. Blood money is to be paid not only for murder, but also in the case of unnatural death, interpreted to mean death in a fire, industrial or road accident, for instance, as long as the responsibility for it falls on the accused. The diyah compensation amount depends on the religion of the victim.
Human Rights Watch and United States’ Religious Freedom Report note that in sharia courts of Saudi Arabia, “The calculation of accidental death or injury compensation is discriminatory. In the event a court renders a judgment in favor of a plaintiff who is a Jewish or Christian male, the plaintiff is only entitled to receive 50 percent of the compensation a Muslim male would receive; all other non-Muslims (Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Animists, Atheists) are only entitled to receive one-sixteenth of the amount a male Muslim would receive”.
While Saudi judges have the last say in any settlement, as of 2011, diya price for a Muslim man, in Saudi Arabia, was SR300,000 ($80,000) for an accidental death and SR400,000 ($106,666) in premeditated murder. (The price was raised that year due to a rise in the price of camels.)
Diyah in Saudi has been controversial, as in a 2013 case, where a father molested and murdered his five-year-old daughter, but avoided jail by paying money to her mother.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diya_(Islam)
I anticipate that we will see a larger Diya this time, as the Khashoggi family has to accept it otherwise it will be a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qisas
He worked for KSA security for years and would have many interactions with CIA.
Mr. Pompeo was greeted on arrival by Prince Khalid bin Salman, a son of the king and younger brother of the crown prince. Prince Khalid had been serving as the Saudi ambassador to Washington, but returned to Riyadh last week, and United States officials said he was unlikely to return.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/world/middleeast/pompeo-saudi-arabia-turkey.html
Is it sufficient to replace MbS with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_bin_Salman_bin_Abdulaziz_Al_Saud as Crown Prince?
He’s accomplished a lot in his 30yrs
MBS will have no hesitation to sacrifice by who committed Khashoggi killing if that will make him get out of this predicament, and I assume that those employees are confined in house arrest and isolated from surrounding world and living in fear being the scape goat for MBS.
https://twitter.com/Egy_Malcom_X/status/1052507170141609987
A Turkish newspaper reported on Oct. 18 that one of the suspects involved in the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi died in a “suspicious car accident” in Riyadh.
Mashal Saad al-Bostani, a 31-year-old lieutenant of the Saudi Royal Air Forces, was among the 15 suspects who arrived and left Turkey on Oct. 2 after going to Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate when Khashoggi visited there, according to daily Yeni Safak.
The newspaper said sources did not release any details about the traffic accident in Riyadh and Bostani’s role in the “murder” was not yet clear.
Daily Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi claimed on Oct. 18 that Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consul Mohammad al-Otaibi could be “the next execution” as Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman “would do anything to get rid of evidence.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/saudi-suspect-in-khashoggi-case-dies-in-car-accident-report-138007
update here https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45926754
al_Qahtani has published odd tweets the last weeks and in this https://twitter.com/saudq1978/status/1053493341147578368 he thanks the king and MbS for all their time together and their trust in him. He as well says that he will be loyal for all eternity.
According to https://kozpost.com/blog/khashoggi-who-are-the-two-senior-saudi-officials-dismissed/12479/ he tweeted last year: “I do nothing of my own initiative, without orders. I am the employee and the executor of my king and my prince”. Unfortunately it was no link to that tweet.
“he died in fistfight” …. yeah, a fistfight with long knives
Great breakdown:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45906396
My understanding is that Kashoggi entered the Consul general’s office to chat. Mutreb then entered. He and Kashoggi knew each other and Kashoggi knew what was to happen and immediately tried to leave.
Other members of the rendition team entered and restrained Kashoggi. Tubaigy drugged Kashoggi. Between the struggle, a choke hold and likely overdose, Kashoggi had a heart attack and died.
It was murder. I don’t believe there was torture or dismemberment.
The body was given to a local Saudi-connected building contractor who buried it somewhere.
According to Muslim halal burial, the body cannot be exhumed. The Turks want an autopsy, that is the current argument.
If Kashoggi did not get a halal burial, it is too late now to do so.
The Crown Prince knew of the op, he saw a number of close associates leave for days, and had to know why.
The CP cannot become King without someday being named Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. If the CP prevented a halal burial he cannot be named Custodian.
The King is too weak to have much say in any of this. However the King’s brother, Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, who has deep ties with Saudi security may try to seize power.
More to come.
Thanks.
Why involve 15 people when 4 or 5 will do? The more you involve, the greater risk of the truth eventually coming out.
I don’t know who to trust the least, Saudis or Turks.
It is a big consulate:
The Turkish prosecutor’s office questioned 20 employees of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul over the reported murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi two weeks ago, Turkish sources told Middle East Eye.
Those interrogated on Friday included the Saudi consul general’s driver, technicians, a telephone operator and cleaning staff, all of whom are Turkish nationals. One female consulate employee told prosecutors that Saudi diplomats had warned her against speaking on the matter, according to Turksh sources.
The sources added that 25 other consulate staff members, Turkish and Saudi, are set give testimony next week.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkish-police-search-forest-coastal-city-journalists-remains-1396735245
If the staff was 20 - 45, KSA assumed that they needed 15 for the operation and for the protection of the consulate. They said to the original staff to take the day off.
Despite much of the fallout centering on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it appears that King Salman is letting his son get his way for now. The crown prince already is rounding up fall guys and has even been put in charge of restructuring the country's intelligence services. Despite Riyadh's questionable narrative that Khashoggi was killed during a “fistfight” inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the king appears to be sending a message that the crown prince is here to stay and that no one else should dare challenge him. Among the key personalities we're still watching in the royal power balance are Mohammed bin Salman’s full brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman; Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca; King Salman’s brother and member of the powerful “Sudairi seven,” Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; and former Crown Prince and Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
My bet is Prince Khalid bin Salman, the former ambassador in Washington, although Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is better if they want to continue with the Kingdom: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-05/saudi-prince-addresses-questions-of-loyalty-after-london-video
Here it is 17AUG2017:
In this tweet by saudq1978 the chief scapegoat in the #Saudi narrative on the murder of JamalKhashoggi he says “you think I act/speak on my own accord without directives? I’m an employee who honestly executed the orders of my masters the King & the Crown Prince
... and here is the original: https://twitter.com/saudq1978/status/898273541367451648
WSJ 20OCT2018: In the kingdom itself, a number of Saudi royals have tried to reach out to King Salman to discuss the crisis, but have been blocked by associates of the crown prince, said two members of the royal family. They have been secretly meeting in small groups to discuss the issue, they said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/scandal-over-dead-journalist-jolts-heir-to-saudi-throne-1540076164
and here is the tweet from the royal family:
https://twitter.com/mujtahidd/status/1053308808137719809
It also says that MbS has left the yacht that he usually stays in and is staying at the palace as he is likely afraid of a a family coup. It says that MbS at present is in full control.
As early as December 2015, the BND, the German equivalent of MI6, took the highly unusual step of releasing a report about generational change in the Saudi leadership. It warned that power was being concentrated in the hands of Bin Salman, then the defence minister and Deputy Crown Prince. It also predicted he would attempt to succeed his father as king, and that he would use that platform to become a Saddam-style leader of the Arab world.
As a result, the Saudis, who have often been seen as a valuable pro-Western ally, would abandon past caution in favour of a destabilising regional role. Worse, the BND feared he was a gambler who would use military might to get his way.
This was an odd statement for an intelligence service to release, particularly given the strong commercial relationship between the two countries (Germany, like Britain, sells arms to Saudi Arabia). Unless, that is, the agency had access to clear and worrying evidence.
I have been told by a member of another Gulf ruling house that the BND got its hands on Bin Salman’s medical history after he was treated for epilepsy in Germany as a teenager – including psychiatric records that have led to such concern about his state of mind.
The BND was right about Bin Salman’s ambitions. With his 82-year-old father King Salman, suffering from Alzheimer’s, Bin Salman took over as Crown Prince last year.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6298711/No-wonder-call-Little-Saddam-MICHAEL-BURLEIGH-Saudi-Crown-Prince.html
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