A missing Saudi journalist recorded his death on an Apple Watch, according to a Turkish newspaper. Pro-government publication Sabah claimed that Turkish officials have an audio recording of the alleged killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul 11 days ago. The Washington Post columnist, who lived in self-imposed exile in the US, wrote a critical piece about Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman before he vanished.
Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman MP Tom Tugendhat said the UK must consider its relations with Saudi Arabia if the state ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
Mr Tugendhat added that it was important to establish the facts, but if the Riyadh government had murdered Khashoggi there could be a downgrading of diplomatic relations and a boycott by UK ministers. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he wanted to know the truth about what happened and said he feared similar ‘disappearances’ would become a ‘new normal’.
The kingdom has maintained the allegations against it are ‘baseless’. Turkish officials say they believe a 15-member Saudi ‘assassination squad’ killed Khashoggi at the consulate. Turkey has yet to publish any evidence of him being slain, though surveillance footage around the consulate shows a convoy of vehicles with diplomatic license plates leaving the Saudi Consulate for the consul’s home in Istanbul a little under two hours after Khashoggi’s arrival.