Turkish columnist receives Khashoggi's 'murder evidence, tip on survival' on same day

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan

Daily Hürriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan wrote on Oct. 19 that he received photographs of a dead man allegedly showing the body of Jamal Khashoggi on the same day one of his friends reassured him that the missing Saudi journalist is actually alive.

“I turned on my phone and saw the photos of dissected human body parts; hands, feet and a head. It was not possible to look at them as they were horrifying. The message was saying the body parts belonged to Khashoggi,” Hakan said.

The popular Turkish columnist added he also received a phone call from a friend, whose “past predictions about such complicated issues were always proven true.”

The friend told Hakan that Khashoggi was actually not killed.

“All the stories are garbage. He is alive, he was not killed,” the columnist quoted his friend as saying.

“I did not fully believe in him but I hope that he is right,” Hakan added, exemplifying the ongoing “information pollution” on social media surrounding Khashoggi’s fate amid leaks published by international and Turkish outlets.

Khashoggi, a dissident living in self-imposed exile in the United States where he contributed to the Washington Post, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Turkish officials claim on condition of anonymity that Khashoggi was tortured, killed and dismembered in the consulate by a hit squad, which arrived from Riyadh—claims denied by the Saudi government.

Neither Turkey nor the United States has publicly confirmed that the Saudi dissident is dead or said officially that Riyadh is to blame.

But a steady stream of unconfirmed leaks from officials to media have painted a detailed and horrifying picture of Khashoggi’s last minutes, allegedly at the hands of 15 Saudi agents waiting for him when he came to the consulate for paperwork.