Saudi embassy road in London 'renamed Khashoggi Street'

Amnesty International activists will rename the street outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in central London as "Khashoggi Street" on Friday to mark a month since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate building in Turkey.

The renaming will take place at 1.14pm, the exact time that CCTV cameras recorded the journalist entering the consulate building in Istanbul and a mock "Khashoggi Street" sign which will be erected near the gates of the Saudi embassy. 

Khashoggi vanished after entering the consulate on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz. He was a Washington Post contributor living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 2017, and had voiced some mild criticism of Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS). 

Turkey's chief prosecutor confirmed for the first time this week that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate, as part of a planned hit, and his body was then dismembered and destroyed.

Earlier on Friday, Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan, said that his body was "dissolved" after he was murdered and dismembered.

"We now see that it wasn't just cut up, they got rid of the body by dissolving it. According to the latest information we have, the reason they cut up the body is it was easier to dissolve it," Aktay said.

The whole world has been shocked by this grotesque killing, and it's vital that we don't let the outrage fade away without justice being done

Aktay's most recent comments echo previous claims by another Turkish official who had said authorities are investigating a theory that the body was destroyed in acid.

"The whole world has been shocked by this grotesque killing, and it's vital that we don't let the outrage fade away without justice being done," Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK's Director said.

"We need to see Jamal Khashoggi's killers brought to justice - not only those who actually carried out the murder, but those who ordered it and knew it was about to happen."

Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who waited outside the consulate as the journalist entered to obtain documents for their upcoming marriage, said what was done to his body was "brutal, barbaric and ruthless".

"It is now up to the international community to bring the perpetrators to justice. Of all nations, the United States should be leading the way," Cengiz said in opinion article published in the Washington Post, The Guardian and other media outlets on Friday.

"The Trump administration has taken a position that is devoid of moral foundation," she wrote, adding that "there will be no cover-up".

In her article, Cengiz noted that the one-month anniversary of Khashoggi's death fell on the UN's International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

"We must all send a clear message that authoritarian regimes cannot kill journalists ever again," she said.

The murder of the royal insider-turned-critic has provoked widespread outrage and fuelled an international debate about arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia. Gruesome reports allege that he was murdered and his body dismembered by the team sent from Saudi Arabia to silence the Washington Post columnist for criticising MbS.

We must all send a clear message that authoritarian regimes cannot kill journalists ever again

Recent reports also speculate the journalist may have been assassinated for preparing a report about the planned use of chemical weapons by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

	Read more here: Murder in the Saudi consulate:  Inside Jamal Khashoggi's killing

After initially insisting Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, then saying he died in a brawl during an interview gone wrong, the Saudi regime has admitted he was killed by a "rogue operation" and arrested 18 people.

Turkish President Erdogan has called for the 18 suspects - including the alleged 15-man hit team who travelled to Istanbul and left the same day - to be extradited for trial in Turkey.

Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who has positioned himself as a Saudi reformer, has denounced the murder as "repulsive" and strongly denied any involvement.

"Contrary to claims made by the Saudi Crown Prince and others, Saudi Arabia hasn't been 'reforming', it's been rounding up critics and activists in a brutal human rights crackdown," Allen added. 

"The UK needs to completely re-appraise its relationship with Saudi Arabia, moving on from its failed softly-softly 'engagement' approach to one where ministers raise human rights openly and frankly with their counterparts in Riyadh.

"One thing Britain urgently needs to do is halt all further arms sales to the Saudi Arabia and other members of the military coalition in Yemen," she said. 

Germany and Switzerland have vowed to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia until the case is clarified.