The drumbeat of incriminating leaks from the Turkish investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi has continued apace Monday afternoon. And in the latest salacious piece of evidence that appears to support the theory that Khashoggi’s murder was a premeditated act ordered by a senior official in his government, if not the Crown Prince himself, a Turkish TV station has aired footage showing employees from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul burning documents on Oct. 3, the day after Khashoggi disappeared inside the consulate and was never seen again.
Per Middle East Eye, Turkish television channel A Haber released on Monday a video seemingly filmed by a small drone of consulate employees throwing documents into a fire outside of the consulate building.
BREAKING — Turkish TV @tvahaber broadcasts images showing Saudi Consulate staff in Istanbul are burning documents one day after #Khashoggi murder pic.twitter.com/eeoDiCsn12
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 22, 2018
Turkish authorities haven’t commented on the latest video, which was shared by a number of Turkish news outlets. The identity of the individuals in the video and the contents of the documents they burned remained unknown as of publication time.
Meanwhile, Middle East Eye reported that five more Turkish employees of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul gave witness statements on Monday to investigators in the Khashoggi probe. That brings the total number of consulate employees interviewed to 25 – roughly 20 short of the 45 that investigators hope to interview.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia officially admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the embassy during what they described as a “botched interrogation. However on Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir appeared to walk back these claims, saying the kingdom didn’t know how Khashoggi died. There have also been conflicted reports about how Khashoggi’s remains were disposed of, with Saudi sources saying his body was rolled into a carpet and given to a local fixer to dispose of, while Turkish sources insist that he was cut into 15 pieces.
Turkish President Erdogan is expected to release more details about the killings on Tuesday. But evidence leaked on Monday suggest that Turkey will embrace a more aggressive tone.
