Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi dead: Report

New York, Oct 8: Turkish investigators believe prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi , who contributed to The Washington Post, was killed in "a preplanned murder" at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported Saturday night.

Saudi authorities had no immediate comment, though they've insisted the writer left their diplomatic post.

Jamal Khashoggi missing or dead?

One Turkish official also told news agency Associated Press that detectives' "initial assessment" was that Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the consulate, without elaborating. Khashoggi, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for the last year, vanished Tuesday while on a visit to the consulate.

Turkish consulate

His disappearance has threatened to upend already-fraught relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and it raises new questions about the kingdom and the actions of its assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Khashoggi wrote critically about in his columns. In a dramatic twist of fate, Khashoggi disappeared on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018, after visiting his country’s consulate in Istanbul and may have been killed there.

According to reports, Khashoggi entered the Saudi's consulate in Istanbul on 2 October to obtain a document he needed to get married but never came out. On 3 October, the Saudi government said he had left the consulate,the Turkish government said he was still inside, and his fiancée and friends said he was still missing

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

As a contributor to the Post, Khashoggi has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticizing its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women's rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving. All those issues have been viewed as being pushed by Prince Mohammed, who similarly has led roundups of activists, businessmen and others in the kingdom.

Tawakkol Karman's protest

Tawakkol Karman, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2011, protested outside the Saudi Arabia consulate, in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was a Saudi insider. He rubbed shoulders with the Saudi royal family and supported its efforts to nudge the entrenched ultraconservative clerics to accept reforms. He was a close aide to the kingdom’s former spy chief and was a leading voice in the country’s prominent dailies.