We didn’t kill Khashoggi, our agents did, says Saudi FM

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by the kingdom's agents who were not "authorized" to do so.

"I wouldn't say that our interests are not aligned [on Khashoggi] because it implies that we killed him. We didn't kill him. He was murdered by agents of the Saudi government without authorization and without permission," Adel al-Jubeir said in an interview with the President of Council of Foreign Relations Richard N. Hass on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"We have launched an investigation [into the murder of Khashoggi]. Charges are filed against 11 individuals, five of them are facing the death penalty. The trials began in January. They’re ongoing," he added, vehemently denying the kingdom's involvement in the death of Khashoggi.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday said that the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the suspicious death in a court room of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi showed "a real need for justice" in the Middle East.

Two dozen mainly European countries voiced concern on Monday in a written statement in which they urged Saudi authorities to establish the truth about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in October and ensure the perpetrators were held to account.

Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2, 2018 in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia initially denied any knowledge of his whereabouts after he went missing but later attempted to blame his death on a team of rogue operatives carrying out a botched rendition operation.

Khashoggi, according to reports by the UN and other independent organizations, was murdered and dismembered, very likely on orders of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.