ANKARA: Saudi Arabian officials invited Turkish experts and related officials to visit its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey’s state-owned news agency Anadolu said on Tuesday, following the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi a week ago.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said a search would be conducted there, while the United Nations human rights office urged both countries to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Khashoggi entered the consulate last Tuesday and has not been heard of or seen since, his fiancée and friends say. Turkish officials told Reuters at the weekend they believed he had been killed inside the Saudi consulate.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the investigation was “continuing intensively”, and that the Vienna Convention allowed for consulates to be searched by the authorities of the host country with the consent of the mission chief.
“The consulate building will be searched in the framework of the investigation,” Aksoy said in a written statement.
There was no immediate comment on the report from the Saudi authorities.
The United Nations human rights office voiced deep concern on Tuesday at the “apparent enforced disappearance” and possible murder of Khashoggi and urged the two countries to investigate.
“We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the circumstances of Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance and to make the findings public,” U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing.
The two countries have such an obligation under both criminal law and international human rights law, she said.
Britain asks Saudis to explain what happened to missing journalist: Britain’s foreign minister Jeremy Hunt called on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has been missing since he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week.
The disappearance of Khashoggi, previously a prominent newspaper editor in Saudi Arabia and an adviser to its former head of intelligence, has sparked global concern.
“Just met the Saudi ambassador to seek urgent answers over Jamal Khashoggi,” Hunt said on Twitter on Tuesday.
“Violence against journalists worldwide is going up and is a grave threat to freedom of expression. If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously – friendships depend on shared values.”
EU expects investigation of Khashoggi disappearance: The European Union fully supports U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called on Saudi Arabia to investigate the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, EU policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Tuesday.
“We are fully aligned with the U.S. position on this,” Mogherini told reporters in Lisbon. “We expect a full-out investigation and full transparency from Saudi authorities on what happened.”
Khashoggi, a former newspaper editor in Saudi Arabia, disappeared eight days ago after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities believe he was killed inside the consulate.
On Monday, Pompeo said the United States was “concerned by his disappearance” and asked the Saudi Arabia government to support a “thorough investigation”.
