{"id":18898,"date":"2018-10-18T01:24:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T01:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18898"},"modified":"2018-10-18T01:24:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T01:24:13","slug":"khashoggi-case-a-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18898","title":{"rendered":"Khashoggi case: A timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi<\/a>, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, has not been seen since entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2.<\/p>\n

Here’s a timeline of his disappearance:<\/p>\n

June 2017<\/h3>\n

Khashoggi leaves Saudi Arabia<\/a> for Washington, DC, where he hopes to continue writing amid a crackdown on dissent in his native Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

“As we speak today, there [are] Saudi intellectuals and journalists. Now, nobody will dare to speak and criticise the reforms [initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman<\/a>],” the famed critic told Al Jazeera’s UpFront in March.<\/p>\n

“Let’s talk about something other than women driving. The NEOM project, the futuristic city that he [the crown prince] plans to invest half a trillion dollars in. What if it goes wrong? It could bankrupt the country.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

May 2018<\/h3>\n

The journalist meets Hatice Cengiz, a 36-year-old Turkish PhD student to whom he is soon engaged.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

September 28\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/h3>\n

Khashoggi pays a first visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document attesting he had divorced his ex-wife, a requirement under Turkish law, in order that he be able to marry Cengiz.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cengiz described that first meeting as positive and said consulate staff had “welcomed him [Khashoggi] warmly and assured him that the necessary paperwork would come through”.<\/p>\n

October 2<\/h3>\n

Accompanied by Cengiz – who waited outside the consulate – Khashoggi is recorded by surveillance cameras entering the building at 13:14pm (10:14 GMT).<\/span><\/p>\n

Cengiz is instructed to contact Yasin Aktay, a close aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>, in case anything goes wrong.<\/p>\n

Three hours pass before Cengiz asks consulate staff about Khashoggi, at which point she is told he had already left the building through the back door.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday, October 3\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Saudi authorities\u00a0issue<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0a statement confirming Khashoggi’s disappearance but insist he had left its building.<\/p>\n

“Mr Khashoggi visited the consulate to request paperwork related to his marital status and exited shortly thereafter,” the statement read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Turkish presidency, however, says that\u00a0Khashoggi did not leave the consulate<\/span><\/p>\n

“According to information we have, this individual who is a Saudi national is still at the consulate as of now,”\u00a0Ibrahim Kalin\u00a0said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thursday, October 4<\/h3>\n

Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Ankara over\u00a0the disappearance of Khashoggi.<\/p>\n

The ambassador, however, denied knowing anything about Khashoggi’s disappearance, adding that he would inform authorities once he obtained further information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Friday, October 5\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Mohammed bin Salman tells Bloomberg that Khashoggi is not inside the consulate, adding that he is not against a Turkish investigation taking place and searching the mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“My understanding is he entered and he got out after a few minutes or one hour. I’m not sure. We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time,” the crown prince said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday, October 6\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Reuters journalists tour the six-storey consulate in northern Istanbul where Khashoggi was last seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I would like to confirm that … Jamal is not at the consulate nor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the consulate and the embassy are working to search for him” consul-general Mohammad al-Otaibi told reporters at the consulate. “We are worried about his case.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Al-Otaibi says that while the consulate was equipped with cameras, these did not record any footage the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance.<\/span><\/p>\n

A government source says Turkish police believe Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Based on their initial findings, the police believe that the journalist was killed by a team especially sent to Istanbul and who left the same day,” the source said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday, October 7<\/h3>\n

Turkish President\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u00a0says he remains hopeful about the fate of Khashoggi amid reports that the critic may\u00a0have been killed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am following the [issue] and we will inform the world whatever the outcome [of the official probe]”, Erdogan said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“God willing, we will not be faced with a situation we do not want. I still am hopeful,” adding that “it is very, very upsetting for us that it happened in our country”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Erdogan says video footage of the entrances to the consulate would be reviewed as well as the monitoring of all inbound and outbound flights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yasin Aktay, Erdogan’s adviser, tells Reuters he believes Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aktay added that a 15-man hit squad was “most certainly involved” in the matter.<\/p>\n

Monday, October 8\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Erdogan says the burden of proof falls on the Saudis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying ‘he has left’,” Erdogan told a news conference in Budapest.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump says he is concerned about reports of Khashoggi’s disappearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am concerned about it. I don’t like hearing about it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now nobody knows anything about it.”<\/p>\n

Tuesday, October 9<\/h3>\n

The Washington Post – for whom Khashoggi wrote columns – reports that US intelligence had intercepted communications of Saudi officials planning to abduct the prominent journalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there,” the Post quoted a person familiar with the information as saying.<\/span><\/p>\n

The US Department of State says it wasn’t tipped off about such an operation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The United Kingdom issues its first statement on Khashoggi’s disappearance and demands “urgent answers”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Just met the Saudi ambassador to seek urgent answers over Jamal Khashoggi,”\u00a0British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The French foreign ministry also issues a statement on their website, saying it is closely following developments in Khashoggi’s case.<\/span><\/p>\n

“France is concerned about the disappearance of Mr Jamal Khashoggi, a recognised and esteemed Saudi personality,” the statement says. “We want his situation to be resolved as quickly as possible.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia agrees to let Turkish authorities search the consulate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

English-language state broadcaster TRT World says Turkish officials believe the Saudis may have taken the consulate’s CCTV footage with them when they returned to the kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Khashoggi case: Al the latest updates<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, has not been seen since entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Here’s a timeline of his disappearance: June 2017 Khashoggi leaves Saudi Arabia for Washington, DC, where he hopes to continue writing amid a crackdown on dissent in his native Saudi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}