Turkey’s intel chief informs US senators on Khashoggi murder

Cansu Çamlıbel – WASHINGTON

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan held a closed-door meeting on Dec. 6 in Washington with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Gina Haspel and several U.S. senators over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Fidan’s agenda for the Washington meeting also included the issue of FETÖ, namely the extradition of its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen, and developments in northern Syria, daily Hürriyet reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers on Dec. 7 that Fidan was tasked to go to Canada after the G-20 Summit in Argentina and after a visit to Canada he might conduct a visit to the U.S., but said he was not aware about the second leg of this trip. But the president added that the visit is likely since Fidan was commissioned to inform officials on this matter.

Haspel gave a closed-door briefing to the U.S. senators on Dec. 4 about the killing of Khashoggi. Senior U.S. senators said they were “more certain than ever” that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for the killing of Khashoggi.

The CIA director was in Turkey on Oct. 23 to help investigate the death of the Saudi journalist and reportedly listened to the audio recordings of the killing obtained by Turkish authorities.

Khashoggi, who lived in Washington, disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Evidences gathered by Turkey implicated his murder was conducted by a Saudi assassin team, which dismembered his body. The whereabouts of his body are still unknown.

Saudi Arabia said on Oct. 20 that Khashoggi, 59, was killed in a fight in the consulate. A Saudi official later told Reuters that 15 Saudi nationals sent to Turkey to confront Khashoggi had threatened him with being drugged and kidnapped and then killed him in a chokehold when he resisted.