Turkish TV releases CCTV in missing Saudi scribe case

CCTV footage released by Turkish television on Wednesday showed the moment missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul and the movements of a team suspected of involvement in his disappearance.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, vanished on October 2 after entering the consulate to obtain official documents ahead of his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.

Government sources said at the weekend that police believed Khashoggi was killed by a team specially sent to Istanbul, thought to consist of 15 Saudis.

But Riyadh insisted the 59-year-old journalist had left the building and the murder claims were "baseless".

Turkish police were looking into two private aircraft that landed at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on October 2 at different times carrying the individuals of interest in the case.

One of the first images from the CCTV footage shared by 24 TV broadcaster on Wednesday showed a man believed to be Khashoggi enter the consulate at 1.14pm (1014 GMT).

Footage also showed some of the Saudis arriving in Istanbul after the first plane landed before 0030 GMT on October 2 and the men later checking into a hotel. Aksam daily said some of the men went into the Saudi consulate before Khashoggi.

According to the images, a vehicle that went inside the consulate then went to the consul-general's residence nearby after 1200 GMT, two hours after Khashoggi had entered the mission.

Aksam newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Kelkitlioglu speculated on 24 TV that Khashoggi had been taken in the vehicle, adding: "It is almost certain he is in the minibus."

Local media on Tuesday reported on the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped and taken aboard one of the private planes.

Both planes later returned to Riyadh with one stopping in Dubai and the other in Egypt, pro-government Sabah daily said.

Khashoggi, a former Saudi government adviser, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year fearing possible arrest.

He has been critical of some policies of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Riyadh's intervention in the war in Yemen.