Turkey on Tuesday said it will search the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a missing Saudi contributor to The Washington Post, a week after he vanished during a visit there.
The announcement came as the Post published a surveillance image of Jamal Khashoggi walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just before he disappeared.
Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed inside the premises.
Saudi Arabia has called the allegations that it killed 59-year-old Khashoggi “baseless”, but has offered no evidence over the past seven days to show that he ever left the building.
Tuesday’s statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Hami Aksoy said that Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were “open to cooperation” and would allow the consulate building to be searched.
The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched. Officials in Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights office said the disappearance is “of serious concern”. Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said it would be “truly shocking” if reports of Khashoggi’s death are confirmed.
During a UN briefing on Tuesday in Geneva, Shamdasani said that the rights office is urging Turkey and Saudi Arabia to cooperate and conduct an “impartial and independent investigation” into Khashoggi’s disappearance in Istanbul, and “to make the findings public”.
