Saudi king, crown prince meet with family of slain journalist

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with family members of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Riyadh on Tuesday, state media said.

The Saudi rulers met with Khashoggi’s son Salah and brother Sahel at the royal palace, state-run news agency SPA reported.

The report said King Salman and Prince Mohammed offered their condolences to the family of the Saudi journalist.

After more than two weeks of vehemently denying Khashoggi was dead, the Saudi government on Saturday said he was killed in a fight inside its consulate in Istanbul and said the murder was not state-sanctioned.

Khashoggi was a US resident and had lived in self-imposed exile in Virginia since 2017, shortly after Prince Mohammed was appointed heir to the throne.

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The powerful crown prince also appeared Tuesday at a glitzy investment forum boycotted by a host of global business leaders over Khashoggi’s killing.

Prince Mohammed smiled and took selfies with delegates during his 15-minute appearance on the opening day of the three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII), which is aiming to project the historically insular Gulf kingdom as a lucrative business destination.

The conference, nicknamed “Davos in the desert,” has been overshadowed by the outcry over the murder of Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, with a string of leading international investors pulling out over the case.

But Saudi organizers sought to portray it was business as usual, announcing 12 “mega deals” worth more than $50 billion in oil, gas, infrastructure, and other sectors.

They sought to rally around Prince Mohammed, the king’s powerful son whose reform credentials have been tarnished by the scandal despite repeated denials he had any involvement in the killing, as he made an appearance.

Also Tuesday, US Vice President Mike Pence vowed to press Saudi Arabia for answers on the journalist’s “brutal murder” after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the killing inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate was meticulously planned.

“The world is watching. The American people want answers and we will demand that those answers are forthcoming,” Pence told an event at The Washington Post, where Khashoggi was a contributing opinion writer.

Erdogan, in his most extensive public remarks since Khashoggi’s disappearance upon entering the consulate on October 2, called on Saudi Arabia to extradite suspects to Turkey to face justice over the writer’s death.

“The word from President Erdogan this morning that this brutal murder was premeditated, pre-planned days in advance, flies in the face of earlier assertions that had been made by the Saudi regime,” Pence said.

“It underscores the determination of our administration to find out what happened,” he said.

The strongly worded remarks come after days of mixed messages by US President Donald Trump, who has vowed punishment but also ruled out major actions such as stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a longstanding US ally.

Pence, whose administration routinely criticizes the media, called Khashoggi’s death “an assault on a free and independent press, and our administration is determined to use all means at our disposal to get to the bottom of it.”

“We’re going to demand that those responsible are held accountable and once we have all the facts President Trump will make the decision based upon the values of the American people and our vital national interests,” he said.