Investigators end search for evidence in Khashoggi case at Saudi consulate

As Reported by Qods News Agency (Qodsna) Reuters said on Tuesday that the Saudi team had left the building, citing a witness. It added that a team of around 10 Turkish police investigators and a prosecutor had also left the facility after a nine-hour search.

Following the probe, a senior Turkish official told Reuters that the investigators had gathered evidence, including soil sample.

“The Turkish crime scene investigators carried out searches in the consulate and took the things deemed necessary,” the

unnamed official said.

Earlier, a Turkish diplomatic source had said that a joint Turkish-Saudi team would search the consulate.

Later in the day, the mission will also be searched by Turkish police.

Khashoggi, a US resident, The Washington Post columnist, and a leading critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, entered the consulate on October 2 to obtain documents for his pending marriage, but he never left the mission.

The case has shocked the international community amid reports that the journalist has been murdered in an operation

ordered by bin Salman.

Cleaners first, investigators next

As the search of the Saudi consulate was underway, video footage surfaced online, showing people with mops and buckets entering the consulate hours before investigators went inside.

“The footage of cleaners prompted speculations and jokes that they were called in to the consulate to remove any remaining evidence from the crime scene,” Russia Today said.

Cuz the way to preserve the integrity of a possible crime scene and bolster confidence in the investigation is to bring in a bunch of cleaners through the front door before the detectives arrive pic.twitter.com/p9oKfPCArF

UN urges Riyadh to lift ‘immunity’

Amid the ongoing investigations, the UN human rights chief for the lifting of the immunity of officials who may be involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“In view of the seriousness of the situation surrounding the disappearance of Mr. (Jamal) Khashoggi, I believe the inviolability or immunity of the relevant premises and officials bestowed by treaties such as the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations should be waived immediately” Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

She said “under international law, both a forced disappearance and an extra-judicial killing are very serious crimes,” emphasizing that the probe should not be hindered by the issue of diplomatic immunity.

“Two weeks is a very long time for the probable scene of a crime not to have been subjected to a full forensic investigation,” the UN rights chief added.

Family urges intl. probe

Meanwhile, Khashoggi’s family have issued a statement, published by The Post, recounting their trauma after his disappearance.

“We are sadly and anxiously following the conflicting news regarding the fate of our father after losing contact with him,” Khashoggi’s family said in a statement published by The Post. “Our family is traumatized, and yearns to be together during this painful time.”

“The strong moral and legal responsibility which our father instilled in us obliges us to call for the establishment of an independent and impartial international commission to inquire into the circumstances of his death,” the family said.

US, Saudi Arabia rush to ‘explain’

CNN and The New York Times, meanwhile, have in separate reports suggested that Riyadh is preparing to announce that Khashoggi was killed after his interrogation at the consulate “went wrong.”

A source cited by The Times said the crown prince had approved an interrogation or rendition of Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government would shield the prince by blaming an intelligence official for the bungled operation, it noted.

Saudi summit faces crisis

Khashoggi’s disappearance and suspected murder have prompted an exodus from a major upcoming investment conference

slated to be held in Riyadh on October 23, as pressure mounts on the kingdom to account for the journalist’s fate.

Alphabet Inc’s Google became the latest in a series of businesses and media groups to boycott the so-called Future Investment Initiative Summit, which focuses on bin Salman’s ambitious economic plans that depend highly on foreign investment.

Besides Google, Uber’s Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon, Ford’s Executive Chairman

Bill Ford, and MasterCard’s CEO Ajay Banga have already announced they will not be attending.

The New York Times, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNN and CNBC have also withdrawn as the event's media sponsors.