The killing in the consulate: investigating the life and death of Jamal Khashoggi

When Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Turkey on 2 October 2018, he was expecting to pick up the documentation that would enable him to marry his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who. was waiting for. him outside. But the Washington Post journalist was entering a trap. A fifteenman Saudi hit squad was lying in wait and, within minutes, he would be brutally murdered. However, Turkish intelligence had bugged the building and recorded the killing on tape.

Based on confidential sources, dramatic new evidence and in-depth research, award-winning foreign correspondent Jonathan Rugman reveals in minute-by-minute detail the truth about what happened that day. But The Killing in the Consulate is about much a more than a horrific murder and the investigation that followed. This book also looks back at the turbulent life of Khashoggi, and how he fell out of favour in Saudi Arabia, to discover why he was killed.

Khashoggi’s death became caught up in a battle for regional influence involving Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey’s president Erdogan. For Donald Trump and other Saudi allies, it cast an unwelcome spotlight on the trade-offs between human rights and arms sales. Skilfully, Rugman draws together all the strands to tell a gripping story of one man’s tragedy and its global consequences.