Turkish police search forest, seaside house to find Khashoggi’s remains

Turkey’s investigation into the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has led the police forces to comb a forest near Istanbul and a farm house in the seaside city of Yalova to find the dissident’s remains.

According to Press TV quoting a source inside the investigation, the movements of a suspicious black van belonging to the Saudi diplomatic mission led the Turkish police to the Belgrad forest and woodland in the Gazi neighborhood.

The van was one of the 14 vehicles that came and left the Saudi consulate on October 2, the day when Khashoggi disappeared after entering the building. The movements of the van were monitored by watching footage of more than 150 CCTV cameras across Istanbul.

The footage tracked by the investigators show the black van with green diplomatic plates headed north, past the Gazi woodland and Belgrad forest, and back into town, a source told the Middle East Eye.

The source said the police are now combing the areas, using crime scene investigation teams and sniffer dogs.

A rural location near the city of Yalova, a 90-kilometer drive south of Istanbul adjacent to Marmara Sea, is another geographic focus of the Turkish police’s search. A "farm house or villa" in the seaside city may have been used for the disposal of remains, the report added.

Turkish investigators have for a second time searched the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi disappeared, and also searched the consul's residence.

While searching the consul-general’s house, investigators combed a small grove nearby, without success, the source said.

However, a high-level Turkish official told the Associated Press on Tuesday that “certain evidence” of Khashoggi’s murder was found in the consulate.

Turkey says that areas of the Saudi consulate’s interior were repainted in between Khashoggi’s disappearance and forensics specialists being allowed into the building 13 days later.

Hours before investigators were allowed into the consulate, cleaners were witnessed entering the building.

A source familiar with the Turkish investigation has told CNN that Saudi intelligence officer and former diplomat Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb played a "pivotal role" in the apparent assassination of Khashoggi.

The source said that Mutreb was fully aware of "the plot" of the operation.

Mutreb, who was the first secretary at the Saudi embassy in London and has been described as a colonel in Saudi intelligence, is closely connected to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

ME