Jamal Khashoggi: Journalist 'was enticed to Istanbul consulate from Saudi embassy in DC'

Jamal Khashoggi was told by Saudi officials he would not be able to get his divorce documents in the US in order to get married and needed to go to Turkey, as part of a ploy to bring him within reach for abduction or elimination, it has been claimed.

The journalist was directed to the Kingdom’s legations in Turkey because those plotting against him believed it would be far too risky to try to carry out an attack in America, with potentially hugely damaging repercussions, according to diplomatic sources and a friend of Mr Khashoggi.

Having been told initially he would be able to pick up the legal papers in the Saudi embassy in Washington, Mr Khashoggi was advised he had to obtain them in Turkey for a forthcoming wedding to his fiancée Hatice Cengiz, who is a Turkish citizen, with the ceremony due to be held in Turkey.

US intelligence, a number of news organisations have claimed, had intercepted that Saudi officials had been planning to lure Mr Khashoggi back to the Kingdom and then arrest him.

It is unclear when the intelligence was gathered, but there appeared to have been no moves to warn Mr Khashoggi he was in danger and that a trap may have been laid for him.

It is known a number of officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, had repeatedly asked the journalist to return to the Kingdom, with offers of lucrative and prestigious jobs – approaches Mr Khashoggi had rebuffed.

His visits to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get the documents, according to Turkish investigators, presented the Saudis with the opportunity they were seeking to seize and kill him.

A friend of Mr Khashoggi said: “Jamal had been to the embassy in DC several times and they had dealt with his consular issues there. He thought he could get the documents he needed showing he was divorced, a legal requirement, from the people in Washington. I think they told him it was a simple matter. But then they said he needed to go to Turkey to get the papers. I am not sure whether he was told about going to Turkey by people in DC or Riyadh.”

“It just seemed at the time to be a matter of bureaucracy. But now, after what has happened, there is obviously cause for suspicion.

“Let’s face it, they would not have dared to do what they did in Istanbul in America. They must have thought it would be much easier in Turkey to do what they planned. This has backfired, but we still don’t know if those really responsible will face justice.”

One of those most insistent in trying to persuade the journalist to return to Saudi Arabia was Saud al-Qahtani, a close confidant of the crown prince, who made Mr Khashoggi a number of lucrative offers in an attempt to get him back to the Kingdom, including a senior government position and a senior post in the administration.

He repeatedly reassured Khashoggi, say multiple sources, he had nothing to fear by going back home.

It subsequently been claimed that Mr al-Qahtani directed the journalist’s seizure, torture and killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul via Skype, allegedly telling the team dispatched for Mr Khashoggi to kill him and “bring me the head of the dog”.

Mr al-Qahtani had launched vitriolic and sustained attacks through social media on the Kingdom’s supposed enemies, and declared they would “pay the price” for treachery. The Saudi government claimed that Mr al-Qahtani was fired after Khashoggi’s killing, along with another senior official. Eighteen others have been arrested.

Mr al-Qahtani, it has been reported, led the interrogation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri when he was detained in Saudi Arabia last year after being enticed to the country to meet the crown prince.

The questioning, it has been claimed, was accompanied by verbal and physical abuse. Mr Hariri was freed and returned to Beirut only after intervention by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Mr al-Qahtani claimed he had the support and approval of the Saudi royal family in all he did. “Do you think I make decisions without guidance? I am an employee and a faithful executor of the orders of my lord the King and my lord the faithful Crown Prince” he tweeted last summer.

Mr Khashoggi had met the Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Khaled bin Salman, a brother of Prince Mohammed, on one of his visits to the embassy a few weeks before his death. He had told friends that the ambassador had been amiable and pleasant.

Prince Khaled, known as KBS, flew to Saudi Arabia after Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance in Istanbul and has not returned to the US.

In a text message sent to a number of people in Washington, and disseminated later to the media, the ambassador said that Khashoggi “has many friends in the Kingdom, including myself” and had “maintained regular contact when he was in Washington ... Jamal is a Saudi citizen whose safety and security is a top priority for the Kingdom, just as is the case with any other citizen. We will not spare any efforts to locate him.”

There is no suggestion that Prince Khaled had played any part in Khashoggi travelling to Istanbul from Washington for his papers.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has charged that Mr Khashoggi had been targeted in a Saudi plot which had been in place for a long time. On Thursday authorities in Riyadh stated that Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated.

This was yet another change of stance from the Kingdom’s government, which had firstly claimed that the journalist had left the consulate by a back door (a Saudi official was later found to have been impersonating him doing this) and then that he was killed during a “fist fight”. The murder, they say now, is due to a “rogue operation”.

Khashoggi’s friend has family living in Saudi Arabia and a neighbouring country and does not want to be publicly identified. He continued: “Jamal met a few people at the embassy. He was always well received and met the Prince [Khaled] there at least once.

“There were offers made to Jamal to return from people close to the royal family, there were quite a few from Qahtani. I don’t think Jamal trusted him, he had a reputation.

“It is also the case that his divorce took place partly because his wife could not cope with the propaganda being aimed at him by the government, and Qahtani, of course, was running the propaganda against all who were considered enemies.”

The investigation into Khashoggi’s mutilation and murder continues. Gina Haspel, the CIA director who has flown to Turkey, is reported to have now heard audio tapes provided by authorities in Ankara.

Prince Mohammed has stressed that Saudi and Turkish investigators are working together. “We will prove to the world that the two governments are cooperating to punish any criminal, any culprit and at the end justice will prevail,” he said.