Saudi state media reported Oct. 19 that the country's attorney general has confirmed prominent journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi [8] died in the country's Turkey consulate, according to the Associated Press [9]. A statement by the attorney general [10] said that Khashoggi was killed after a fight inside the consulate on Oct. 2, and that 18 Saudis are detained pending an investigation. Turkish officials believe that 15 Saudi agents killed and dismembered Khashoggi, according to reports [11]. His body has not been found.
"It offers no consolation to have Saudi officials confirm what the whole world already knows--Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Now the same government that lied to the world, claiming for weeks that it had no knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, expects us to believe he died in a fight," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. "This ridiculous assertion is further evidence of a cover-up. We need an international investigation and relentless pressure on Saudi Arabia from the Trump administration, if we ever hope to get to the truth." (CPJ [12])
