Friends and relatives of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington-based Saudi journalist known for being a vocal critic of the Saudi leadership, said that they lost contact with him on Tuesday, while he was visiting the Saudi Consulate in İstanbul, according to a report by the Washington Post.
According to his fiancée, who asked for her name to be withheld, Khashoggi entered the consulate around 1 p.m. and did not emerge at 5 p.m., after the consulate officially closed.
Turan Kışlakçı, a friend of Khashoggi, said that by midnight there was still no sign of him and they were sure he was still inside.
Spokesmen for the Turkish and Saudi foreign ministries did not respond to messages seeking comment on Khashoggi’s possible whereabouts, the Washington Post said.
Khashoggi has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year when he left Saudi Arabia over concerns that he would be arrested or prevented from traveling. He is a prominent commentator on Saudi affairs, who also contributes to the Washington Post’s Global Opinions section.
“We have been unable to reach Jamal today and are very concerned about where he may be,” the newspaper’s international opinions editor, Eli Lopez, said in a statement. “We are monitoring the situation closely, trying to gather more information. It would be unfair and outrageous if he has been detained for his work as a journalist and commentator.”
Khashoggi was visiting the Saudi Consulate in İstanbul to obtain documents for a marriage license. He went to the consulate on Friday for the first time and left without any incident on that day.
Over the past year, Khashoggi has written extensively about the growing influence of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s young crown prince, and been critical of some of Mohammed’s policies, including a campaign of arrests targeting perceived opponents and dissidents, the Washington Post said.
Turkey is ranked 157th among 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). If Turkey falls two more places, it will make it to the list of countries on the blacklist, which have the poorest record in press freedom.
Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by SCF show that 236 journalists and media workers were in jail as of September 20, 2018, most in pretrial detention. Of those in prison 168 were under arrest pending trial while only 68 journalists have been convicted and are serving their time. Detention warrants are outstanding for 147 journalists who are living in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the Gülen movement, the government also closed down some 200 media outlets, including Kurdish news agencies and newspapers, after a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
The post Critical Saudi journalist Khashoggi goes missing in Turkey appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/critical-saudi-journalist-khashoggi-goes-missing-in-turkey/
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