A Saudi consulate worker in Istanbul told a Turkish court that he was asked to light an oven less than an hour after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the building where he was killed in 2018.
Zeki Demir, a local technician working for the consulate, presented evidence on Friday, the first day of the trial, in the absence of 20 Saudi officials for the Khashoggi killing that sparked worldwide outrage.
Demir said he had been called to the consul’s residence after Khashoggi entered the nearby consulate.
“There were between five and six people there … They asked me to light up the tandoor [oven]. There was an air of panic, “said Demir.
Khashoggi went missing after entering the consulate building in October 2018 to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.
Some western governments, as well as the CIA, said they believed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered the murder, a charge that Saudi officials denied.
Turkish authorities have said that one theory that the police followed was that the killers may have attempted to dispose of the body by burning it after suffocating it and cutting its body.
Meat skewers
According to his testimony in the indictment, Demir reported seeing many meat skewers and a small barbecue in addition to the oven in the Consul’s garden.
The marble plates around the oven appeared to have changed color as if they had been cleaned with a chemical, according to the indictment.
Separate eyewitness accounts in the indictment, from the consul’s driver, said the consul had ordered to buy raw skewers at a local restaurant.
Demir offered to help with the garage door when a car with dark windows arrived, but was told to leave the garden quickly, according to the indictment.
The indictment accuses two senior Saudi officials, Saudi Arabia’s former deputy chief of general intelligence Ahmed al-Asiri and former royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani, of instigating “premeditated murder with monstrous intent.”
He says 18 other defendants were flown to Turkey to kill Khashoggi, a prominent and well-connected journalist who had become increasingly critical of the crown prince.
The defendants are being tried in absentia and Saudi Arabia is unlikely to hand them over, which accused Turkey of failing to cooperate with a separate, largely secret, trial in Riyadh last year.
In December, a Saudi court sentenced five people to death and three to jail for the murder, but Khashoggi’s family later said they forgave their killers, effectively granting them a formal postponement under Saudi law.
At the time, a Saudi prosecutor said there was no evidence linking al-Qahtani to the murder and dismissed the charges against al-Asiri.
.
