Saudi king, crown prince meet with Khashoggi’s family

King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia met Tuesday with family members of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi as the royal family faces questions about its role in his death earlier this month.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry published photos of the royal leaders meeting with Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi, son of the late Washington Post columnist, and Sahl bin Ahmed Khashoggi, brother of the opinion writer.

[Salman] receives Sahl bin Ahmed Khashoggi and Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi in the presence of #CrownPrince and share their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of Jamal Khashoggi, may God rest his soul,” the foreign ministry tweeted.

.@KingSalman receives Sahl bin Ahmed Khashoggi and Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi in the presence of #CrownPrince and share their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of Jamal Khashoggi, may God rest his soul pic.twitter.com/ya2silIbjI

— Foreign Ministry (@KSAmofaEN) October 23, 2018

The photos show one of Khashoggi’s sons, Salah, expressionless as he shakes hands with the crown prince and king. The Associated Press reported that Salah Khashoggi is barred from leaving the country because of his father’s criticism of Saudi leadership.

Jamal Khashoggi’s three other children do not live in Saudi Arabia. 

{mosads}Both royal leaders have come under scrutiny after Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after he entered it on Oct. 2. The Saudis have offered different explanations of what happened to him.

The king and crown prince first denied any knowledge of his disappearance, but later announced he was killed in a physical altercation gone wrong at the consulate.

U.S. lawmakers have balked at the latest explanation, and expressed increasing certainty that the crown prince either directed or was explicitly aware of plans to kill Khashoggi.

President Trump has alternated between vowing “severe” punishment for those responsible in Khashoggi’s death, and accepting Saudi explanations for what happened. After telling reporters Monday that he was “not satisfied” with the accounting of Khashoggi’s death, he told USA Today that he believes the journalist died as part of a “plot gone awry.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday detailed the findings of his country’s investigation into Khashoggi’s death. He provided a timeline of what he described as a carefully planned operation that ended with the journalist being killed in a “savage way.”

While Erdogan did not explicitly implicate members of the royal family, he suggested that further investigation into the murder is necessary and called for those detained in the case to be tried in Turkey.

“It will not satisfy the public by just pinning this kind of matter on a few security and intelligence officers,” Erdogan said, according to The Washington Post. “Covering up this kind of savagery will hurt the conscience of all humanity.”