The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered his fellow citizen Jamal Khashoggi to visit his country by making some promises and then arresting him, The Washington Post reported.

“The crown prince ordered that Khashoggi be returned from Virginia to the United States and then arrested, which was monitored by the intelligence services,” the Times reported Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, “some friends Khashoggi said that Saudi officials close to the Crown Prince contacted during the past four months Khashoggi, and offered him protection in the event of returning to Saudi Arabia, and even work in positions.

Khashoggi’s friends said that “the Saudi journalist was suspicious of this offer and said the Saudi government would not honor its promises not to harm it,” the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper also quoted the American political activist of Arab origins, Khalid al-Saffouri, that he spoke with Khashoggi in this regard last May, and that the latter told him that he never trust the Saudi officials.

The newspaper asked whether US intelligence had informed Khashoggi of the information it had reached about the Saudi government’s plan to arrest him.

She noted that according to instructions signed in 2015, the US intelligence agencies are obliged to warn people who are at risk of kidnapping, serious injury or killing, and does not require the instructions to be a US citizen.

She explained that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for the warning, had not provided information as to whether he had been communicating with Khashoggi in that regard.

The Saudi authorities did not issue an official statement on the Washington Post.

The newspaper said yesterday that US intelligence has monitored contacts with Saudi officials who are planning a plan to arrest Khashoggi before he disappeared last week at his consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Saudi journalist disappeared after entering his consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Source: akhbaralsabah