Baku. 23 October. REPORT.AZ/ Months before he was killed in Istanbul, Jamal Khashoggi was invited up to the office of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, NBC reports citing three people with knowledge of the meeting.
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was visiting on a routine consular matter, but he was quickly recognized by embassy officials, who immediately called up to Prince Khalid's top-floor office. Soon, word was sent summoning Khashoggi upstairs, and the two spent roughly half an hour together.
The meeting at the tree-lined embassy, just across from the famed Watergate, took place in early 2018 or late 2017. It was described to NBC News by two of Khashoggi's friends, whom he told about the meeting, and by a third person who was told of the meeting by embassy officials. The Saudi Embassy confirmed that the meeting took place.
What exactly Khashoggi and Prince Khalid discussed is not clear. But the meeting came amid a monthslong campaign by the Saudi royal court to lure Khashoggi back to the kingdom — at first peacefully, through cordial encouragement, and then through more forceful means, which culminated in his killing early this month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
A friend of Khashoggi's recalled asking him whether Khalid, 30, who is Crown Prince Mohammed's younger brother, had been aggressive or threatening.
"He said, 'No, we just had a nice chat, and he was quite nice,'" the friend recalled Khashoggi saying.
Earlier, it was reported that CIA chief Gina Haspel is to leave for Turkey to take part in the investigation into Khashoggi's murder.