Murder in the Saudi consulate: A year after Jamal Khashoggi's killing

On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.

He never left the building.

In the days that followed, Turkish officials said the 59-year-old Washington Post contributor was killed and dismembered inside the consulate by a hit-squad consisting of 15 Saudi government operatives sent from Riyadh.

His body was never recovered.

As speculation initially grew over his disappearance, the powerful Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pleaded ignorance over his whereabouts, saying Khashoggi had left the consulate "after a few minutes or one hour".

But as information from Turkish officials slowly became public, the Saudi story changed.

Riyadh initially insisted that Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, before admitting he was killed in a "rogue operation".

The chilling details that emerged shocked the world.

Inside the consulate a team of Saudi intelligence officers and a forensic scientist trained in autopsy work awaited Khashoggi's arrival.

His body was chopped into pieces by the hit squad. One Saudi officer referred to him as "the sacrificial animal".

The CIA assessed that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing. A UN human rights expert called the murder a "deliberate, premeditated execution".

A year after his brutal death, justice remains elusive for Jamal Khashoggi.

But on Wednesday activists will mark his death, and commemorate his life, by calling for Saudi Arabia, and, above all, Mohammed bin Salman, to be held accountable.

We have collected some of our news coverage and analysis to try and help readers follow the story and ongoing developments. We also would like to inform readers that while we may have the liberty of reading the content here and content from other news sites, those in Saudi Arabia do not have the same freedoms. 

The New Arab has been blocked by the Saudi authorities, along with a number of other news sites since December 2015.