Turkish officials say Saudi leaders ordered murder of missing journalist

A protester holds a poster showing Jamal Khashoggi.

(Image credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

A senior Turkish official told The New York Times on Tuesday security officials have determined that missing Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday on orders of the "highest level of the royal court."

Khashoggi was at the consulate to pick up a document he needed to get married, and was killed within two hours of his arrival, the official said. Turkey says 15 Saudi agents arrived in Istanbul on two charter flights the same day Khashoggi went to the consulate, and left a few hours later. One of those agents was an autopsy expert, the official told the Times, and security officials believe he helped with dismembering Khashoggi's body.

Saudi Arabia has denied any wrongdoing, and said Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after he arrived. Turkish security cameras captured no evidence that he ever left, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has asked for evidence that proves Khashoggi did exit the consulate, but has not yet publicly accused Saudi Arabia of having him killed. A person briefed on the matter told the Times that Turkish intelligence has obtained a video of the killing, made by the perpetrators to prove it took place.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.