Saudi phone call tied to Khashoggi killing: Prosecutors

By Murat Kaya, Muhammed Enes Can and Basak Akbulut Yazar

ISTANBUL

An Oct. 1 telephone conversation between two Saudis -- including one member of a Saudi hit team allegedly responsible for last month’s killing of Jamal Khashoggi -- is believed to be related to the disposal of Khashoggi’s body, said Istanbul prosecutors on Monday.

Mansour Othman M. Abbahussain, part of the 15-man hit-team that allegedly committed the murder, spoke with a Saudi citizen living in Yalova, northwestern Turkey, identified as Mohammed Ahmad A. Alfaozan, said a statement by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

Their conversation reportedly took place on Oct. 1, just one day before Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist working for The Washington Post, was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Alfaozan lived in the village of Samanli, Yalova, in one of two villas searched by Turkish police on Monday in a probe related to the Khashoggi killing.

Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, was killed after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

On the same day of Khashoggi's disappearance, 15 other Saudis, including several officials, arrived in Istanbul on two planes and visited the consulate while he was still inside.

After initially saying he had left the consulate alive, weeks later the Saudi administration admitted he was killed there, blaming a rogue group of Saudi operatives.

Turkey, along with other countries, has pressed for answers about the killing, including who gave the orders and what happened to Khashoggi’s body, which was reportedly dismembered.