Jamal Khashoggi facts: What we know about disappearance of Saudi journalist

The disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi from Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Turkey almost two weeks ago has sparked international outrage.

Turkish officials have said they believe the Saudi writer, who often wrote columns critical of his homeland's crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, was killed after he entered the building on 2 October.

The royal and Saudi Arabia's government have denied any involvement in the 60-year-old’s disappearance.

Here is what we know so far.

Mr Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul on 2 October. He hoped to register divorce papers so he could marry his fiance, Hatice Cengiz.

He had gone into self-imposed exile in the US following the rise of crown prince Mohammad, of whom he was often critical in his columns. He also regularly lamented the direction his kingdom was taking.

CCTV footage released by Turkey shows the writer entering the building while his fiancee waited nearby, but there was none showing him leaving.

Turkey’s pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper published what it said were details from audio recordings which document Mr Khashoggi’s torture and death.

The newspaper alleged his killers cut off his fingers and later beheaded and dismembered him.

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It claimed that the Saudi consul general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, could be heard on the tape, telling those who were allegedly torturing Mr Khashoggi: “Do this outside; you’re going to get me in trouble.”

One of the torturers reportedly replied: “Shut up if you want to live when you return to [Saudi] Arabia.”

Last week another pro-government paper, Sabah, published preliminary evidence from investigators who it said had identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team which had arrived in Istanbul on diplomatic passports hours before Mr Khashoggi disappeared.

Almost every single suspect has ties either to the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed or those in his inner circle, security officials in the West and the region have told The Independent.

Four of the Saudi team have been publicly identified as part of the crown prince’s security detail. The name of one matches a LinkedIn profile for a forensic expert who has worked at the interior ministry for 20 years.

Another is identified in a diplomatic directory from 2007 as a first secretary at the Saudi Embassy in London.

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Other names and photos of the 15 resemble officers in the Saudi Army and Air Force, as identified by previous Saudi media reports and in one case a Facebook profile.

Initial reports said the Saudi writer may have recorded his alleged torture and death on his Apple Watch.

However, it remains possible the Turkish intelligence service the obtained alleged audio recordings by bugging the Saudi consulate and used the Apple Watch as a cover story to avoid their subterfuge.

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Turkey has searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul twice as part of a probe into the missing journalist.

Crime scene investigators searched the building and consular vehicles, using bright lights to illuminate the garden.

They have also spent nearly nine hours in the Saudi consul’s residence, searching the roof and garage and using a drone.

Previously leaked surveillance footage had shown consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general’s official residence, which sits around 1.2 miles (2km) away, nearly two hours after Mr Khashoggi’s arrival.

Turkey’s security services have used pro-government media to leak details of the investigation into Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance, heaping pressure on the kingdom.

Donald Trump, despite initially warning of “severe punishment” if the kingdom was found to be responsible, later said the US wanted Turkey to turn over any audio or video recording it had of Mr Khashoggi’s alleged murder “if it exists”.

The US president recently suggested the global community had jumped to the conclusion Saudi Arabia was behind Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance, comparing them to the accusations of sexual assault made during the confirmation of his pick for Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh.

Mr Khashoggi had reportedly been banned from writing in newspapers, making TV appearances and attending conferences in Saudi Arabia after criticising Mr Trump when he was president-elect.

Several prominent business and technology leaders have pulled out of an investment conference in Riyadh dubbed “Davos in the Desert” amid the growing international backlash over Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance, including the managing director of the International Monetary Fund and the heads of Google, HSBC and Uber.

Britain’s international development secretary, Liam Fox, has also pulled out of the conference.

A spokesman said he had decided the “time is not right” for him to attend. ”The UK remains very concerned about Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance,” he added.

His announcement came after France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, and his Dutch counterpart, Wopke Hoekstra, announced they would also not attend.

Saudi Arabia has warned it will retaliate to any possible economic sanctions or “threats”.

In his final column for The Washington Post, Mr Khashoggi warned that Middle Eastern governments “have been given free rein to continue silencing the media”.

In the op-ed, titled “Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression”, he recounted the imprisonment of a prominent writer who spoke against the Saudi establishment and cited an incident in which the Egyptian government seized control of a newspaper.

“These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence,” he wrote. "As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate.”

Hatice Cengiz, Mr Khashoggi’s wife-to-be has said those behind his disappearance “must be held accountable and punished to the full extent of the law”.

In an article for The New York Times, Ms Cengiz called her husband “a patriot” and wrote: “When people referred to him as a dissident, he would reject that definition. ‘I am an independent journalist using his pen for the good of his country. He left Saudi Arabia because it was the only way he could write and speak about issues and ideas that he cared about, and to work without compromising his dignity.”

She said her husband "spoke up against oppression, but he paid for the Saudi people’s demand for freedom with his own life," and added: “Oppression never lasts forever. Tyrants eventually pay for their sins.”

Additional reporting by agencies