ISTANBUL — Turkish police searched a Saudi-owned mansion south of Istanbul on Monday as part of the investigation into the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, whose remains have not been found.
Irfan Fidan, chief prosecutor of Istanbul and leader of the Khashoggi investigation, ordered the search of the mansion, a sprawling building with a columned central portico, set amid trees in the village of Samanli, about 60 miles south of Istanbul. The area, on the Marmara coast, is a popular tourist spot known for its thermal springs.
Police officers searched the area with drones, and forensics officers, a fire brigade and sniffer dogs were at the scene Monday, Turkish news outlets reported. The newspaper Hurriyet said that the mansion belonged to a Saudi businessman and that it had been unoccupied for the past month. A second house, adjacent to the mansion, was also being searched, Hurriyet reported.
Fidan’s office issued a statement Monday afternoon saying that the search was conducted because one of the Saudi suspects in the Khashoggi case had contacted the occupant of the mansion the day before Khashoggi was killed and the conversation may have been about disposing of his body.
Khashoggi, who wrote columns for The Washington Post, was killed after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Turkish officials say that a team of 15 Saudi officials arrived in Istanbul earlier that day, killed Khashoggi, dismembered and removed his body, and left the country hours later.
The killing of Khashoggi, 59, has heightened tensions between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and tarnished the reputation of the Saudi government and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, the day-to-day ruler of the kingdom.
Turkish officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, and Western intelligence analysts have said that given the complexity and political sensitivity of the operation, the killing was almost certainly carried out with the consent of the crown prince.
Turkey’s government has maintained pressure on the Saudis with a steady string of leaks about the case, but it has refrained from making any public statements about Crown Prince Mohammed’s possible involvement.
Turkish investigators had previously looked into other properties in Yalova province, which includes the mansion that was searched Monday, after a vehicle belonging to the Saudi Consulate was tracked in the area around the time of the murder.
Authorities said they were investigating a Saudi-owned property in the region but released no other details.
Saudi authorities have detained 18 people in connection with the case, brought criminal charges against 11 of them, threatened five with execution, and pledged to cooperate with the Turkish investigation.
