'Reporting at its best. Immaculately researched, sober and informative'
John le Carré 'Compulsory reading...fast-paced and brilliantly written'
Jeremy Bowen After Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was filmed
going in to the Saudi consulate in Turkey, he was never seen alive again.
What happened next turned into a major international scandal, now finally
pieced together by Channel 4's BAFTA award-winning Foreign Affairs
Correspondent Jonathan Rugman. Described by Donald Trump as the 'worst
cover-up ever', this is the first comprehensive account of one of the most
notorious and outrageous murder plots of our time. In The Killing in the
Consulate, Rugman pieces together in minute-by-minute detail the events
after Khashoggi entered the Saudi diplomatic building on 2 October 2018,
expecting to receive the documentation that would enable him to marry
Hatice Gengiz, patiently waiting for him outside. Little did they realise,
he was entering a trap, as a 15-man Saudi hit squad had just flown in to
the country and was waiting for him. Within minutes he had been viciously
murdered and his body was quickly disposed of. The Saudis thought they
would be able to get away with it all, and concocted a far-fetched story to
cover it up. But what they didn't realise was that Turkey's President
Erdogan's security and intelligence agencies had bugged the consulate, and
captured the horrific events on tape. Based on confidential sources,
dramatic new evidence and in-depth research across several countries,
Rugman reveals the context behind the murder and attempted cover-up. He
shows how a power struggle between Erdogan and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, had such fatal results. The prince had
seemed to promise a new and more open era for his country, while also
investing vast sums in arms deals with the West. Inevitably other nations,
including President Trump and the USA, were drawn into the affair, which
created the biggest crisis in US-Saudi relations since 9/11. Skilfully,
Rugman draws together all the strands to tell a gripping story of one man's
tragedy that had global consequences.
Author: Jonathan Rugman
Publication Date: 2019
