Also Saturday, Ankara’s top diplomat reiterated a call to Saudi Arabia to open up its consulate, from where Khashoggi disappeared, for Turkish authorities to search.
The writer, who has written critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, vanished after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2. The kingdom has maintained the allegations against it are “baseless,” though an official early on Saturday — on Khashoggi’s 60th birthday — acknowledged for the first time that some believe the writer was killed by the kingdom.
The disappearance has put pressure on President Donald Trump, who has enjoyed close relations with the Saudis since entering office.
On Saturday, Trump expressed concern about Khashoggi’s fate and lack of answers, so many days after the journalist disappeared.
“Our first hope was that he was not killed but maybe that’s not looking too good from what we hear but there’s a lot to learn, there really is,” Trump said at the White House while welcoming back American pastor Andrew Brunson, freed after nearly two years of detention in Turkey. He later said he anticipated speaking to the Saudi ruler Saturday or Sunday.
The newspaper also alleged Saudi officials tried to delete the recordings first by incorrectly guessing Khashoggi’s PIN on the watch, then later using the journalist’s finger. However, Apple Watches do not have a fingerprint ID unlock function like iPhones. The newspaper did not address that in its report.
An Apple Watch can record audio and can sync that later with an iPhone over a Bluetooth connection if it is close by. The newspaper’s account did not elaborate on how the Apple Watch synced that information to both the phone and Khashoggi’s iCloud account.
Turkish officials have not answered queries from The Associated Press about Khashoggi’s Apple Watch.
Turkish officials say they believe a 15-member Saudi “assassination squad” killed Khashoggi.
In an interview Friday with the AP, Cengiz said Khashoggi was not nervous when he entered the consulate to obtain paperwork required for their marriage.
“He said, ‘See you later my darling,’ and went in,” she told the AP. In written responses to questions by the AP, Cengiz said Turkish authorities had not told her about any recordings and Khashoggi was officially “still missing.”
On Saturday, Cengiz tweeted about a surprise party she had planned for Khashoggi’s birthday, “invited all his close friends to a restaurant on the #TheBosporus to celebrate his birthday but,” she said, adding the hashtags “WhereIsJamal” and “mydreamwaskilled.”
Turkey has audio of Saudi writer's slaying
Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist, was killed in Istanbul after walking into the consulate of Saudi Arabia, according to Turkish officials. In a statement released Saturday, Fred Hiatt, The Post’s editorial page editor, said that if true, this would represent “a monstrous and unfathomable act.”
Khashoggi had been writing a column for The Post’s Global Opinions section since last year. “He lamented that Saudi Arabia’s repression was becoming unbearable to the point of his decision to leave the country and live in exile in Washington,” wrote Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s editor, on Wednesday.
“He writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity and freedom,” Hiatt said. “We have been enormously proud to publish his writing.”
Read
excerpts from some of Khashoggi’s columns below:
The Writings Of Jamal Khashoggi --The Journalist Reported Murdered And Dismembered By Saudi Arabia | Black Star News
