RIYADH, November 23 -- Saudi Arabia has arrested 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of an investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain documents that he needed to get married. After weeks of saying he left the consulate alive, the Saudi administration later admitted Khashoggi was killed there, blaming his death on a group of rogue Saudi operatives. Turkish sources, however, say 15 Saudi intelligence operatives flew to Istanbul on two private jets hours before Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered. Most among the group of 15 worked in the Saudi military, security or intelligence services, including at the royal court, according to Turkish officials and sources with ties to the royal court. Reports said the Saudi foreign ministry, headed by Adel al-Jubeir, issued the passports to the hit squad to enter Turkey. The private jets from Riyadh to Istanbul and back were chartered from a company owned by the Saudi government. Turkey's Sabah newspaper published what it said were photographs of the men taken from surveillance footage at the airport, two hotels they briefly checked into, the consulate, and the consul's residence. Saud al-Qahtani, 40, is the highest-profile figure implicated in the killing. Believed to be the right-hand man of Prince Mohammed, he was removed as a royal court adviser following Khashoggi's assassination. Qahtani, however, was not a part of the 15-member squad that flew to Turkey. Authorities profiled the men part of the hit-squad suspected to be behind the killing, based on photographs, reports and information from officials in Turkey and Saudi Arabia:
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