Riyadh – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will speak at Riyadh’s showcase investment conference on Wednesday, a senior organizer told CNN, hours after Saudi officials offered a new accounting of the events surrounding Jamal Khashoggi’s death.
A panel event, due to start at 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET), will mark bin Salman’s first public speech since Saudi Arabia admitted Khashoggi was killed at its consulate in Istanbul.
Members of bin Salman’s inner circle have been blamed for the Washington Post columnist’s death. Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi was killed during an interrogation gone wrong and vowed to bring rogue operatives to justice. But several US officials told CNN that any such operation could not have happened without bin Salman’s direct knowledge.
Saudi officials on Tuesday said the original plan was to convince Khashoggi, who had been writing critical columns in the Washington Post, to return to Saudi Arabia. If Khashoggi refused, an official told CNN, the next step was to drug him with a tranquilizer and take him to a safe house in Istanbul for 48 hours. If Khashoggi still refused to return to Saudi Arabia at that point, the team was to leave and a “local collaborator” was to let him go, the source claimed.
The Saudi official also claimed that a forensic expert was present to erase all evidence of Khashoggi’s presence at the consulate and safe house, so that if Khashoggi said later that he had been kidnapped, there would be no proof.
The official has provided no corroborating evidence for this new version of events, another iteration of an evolving story from Saudi Arabia. The New York Times has reported that the forensic expert was equipped with a bone saw.
The official said that of the 15 Saudis who took part in the operation, a total of nine were at the consulate, with “three or four to question him and the rest to handle logistics.” There was no explanation why three to four people would be needed for questioning, or what logistics the others would attend to.
The rest of the Saudi squad, including generals and their security detail, waited at the safe house, according to the source.
Turkish officials have said that Khashoggi was set upon immediately after entering the consulate, and then beaten, tortured and dismembered.
The Saudi official told CNN that Khashoggi became agitated after being told he would be drugged and taken to a safe house, at which point he tried to resist, was put in a chokehold and died.
Erdogan and bin Salman in the spotlight
Speaking Wednesday at the presidential palace, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. “We are determined not to allow those responsible — those who ordered the crime and those who committed it — to escape justice,” he said.
“I shared the confirmed information on Khashoggi murder. Some people are uncomfortable about it,” he added. “Our determination and transparency are appreciated not only by victim’s family but also by the whole world.”
On Tuesday, Erdogan gave a speech in Ankara in which he rejected Saudi Arabia’s claim that Khashoggi was killed accidentally, saying he had died as a result of a “ferocious” and premeditated murder.
Addressing members of his ruling party, he made it clear without mentioning bin Salman by name that he held the top leadership in Riyadh responsible for Khashoggi’s death. It was not sufficient to blame on rogue elements in the Saudi security services, Erdogan said.
A short time later, the Crown Prince made an unannounced appearance at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh where he was surrounded by attendees trying to take selfies with him. But he did not give any formal remarks.
The controversy over Khashoggi’s death has overshadowed the investment conference, dubbed “Davos in the desert.” Dozens of top executives have pulled out amid questions over the Saudi government’s role in the journalist’s killing.
The Crown Prince and his father King Salman were pictured shaking hands with Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist’s eldest son, and Sahl bin Ahmad Khashoggi, another relative, at Al Yamama Palace in Riyadh on Tuesday. Jamal Khashoggi has been prevented from leaving Saudi Arabia.
Trump: ‘Worst cover-up ever’
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump offered his most stinging indictment yet of a Saudi effort to silence a dissident journalist, calling the series of events that led to Khashoggi’s death “the worst cover-up ever.”
Trump has become increasingly irritated by the fallout from Khashoggi’s death, multiple sources who have heard him voice his frustration told CNN.
CIA Director Gina Haspel, who has been sent to Turkey on a mission to learn more about the evidence in the country’s possession, will brief Trump on her return to Washington, US Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would be revoking the visas of those who murdered Khashoggi, and said that the administration has “identified at least some of the individuals responsible.”
The State Department was also working with the Treasury Department to apply human rights-related sanctions that includes the freezing of assets and a travel ban, Pompeo said.
Saudi Arabia is an important regional ally for the United States, in particular as the Trump administration seeks to isolate Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed, without offering evidence, that Khashoggi’s murder would not have happened without US support.
“Nobody would imagine that in today’s world we witness such an organized murder. And I don’t think without getting support from the United States a country would dare to commit such a crime,” Rouhani told cabinet ministers on Wednesday, according a statement published on his official website Wednesday.
“It seems that a tribe ruling a country is enjoying protection and relies on a superpower to commit such a crime and that superpower supports them, not letting any court start to act against them,” he said.
As reported by CNN