Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser
Siemens boss Joe Kaeser came under pressure from senior German politicians on Sunday to pull out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week following Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death.
Many business executives including the heads of Deutsche Bank, Uber Technologies and Siemens rival ABB have dropped out of Riyadh's Future Investment Initiative conference amid outrage about Khashoggi's fate.
The leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), Andrea Nahles, called on Kaeser to follow the example of other executives and cancel his plans to attend the conference.
"I hope that Joe Kaeser will rethink this," she told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Germany should not approve arms sales to Saudi Arabia until investigations into the circumstances of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death have been completed, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Saturday.In an interview with German public television's Tagesthemen programme, Maas said there was no reason to approve sales while it was still unclear what had happened to Khashoggi, in an apparent reversal of last month's decision to authorise the sale of artillery systems to Riyadh."So long as investigations are underway, so long as we don't know what happened there, there is no reason to take positive decisions on arms exports to Saudi Arabia," he said.
Germany calls into question arms sales to Saudi over Khashoggi death
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, also from the SPD, told German public television on Saturday evening that cancellations sent the right signal.
"I certainly wouldn't participate in an event in Riyadh at the moment," he said. "And I have great understanding for those who have cancelled."
Norbert Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union who chairs the German parliamentary foreign affairs committee, also urged Kaeser to skip the event.
As Saudi Arabia faced intensifying international scepticism over its story about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a senior government official laid out a new version of the death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that in key respects contradicts previous explanations.The latest account, provided by a Saudi official who requested anonymity, includes details on how the team of 15 Saudi nationals sent to confront Khashoggi on Oct. 2 had threatened him with being drugged and kidnapped and then killed him in a chokehold when he resisted. A member of the team then dressed in Khashoggi's clothes to make it appear as if he had left the consulate.After denying any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, 59, for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning said he had died in a fistfight at the consulate. An hour later, another Saudi official attributed the death to a chokehold, which the senior official reiterated.Arab states hail Saudi explanation on Khashoggi killingTurkish officials suspect the body of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was cut up but the Saudi official said it was rolled up in a rug and given to a "local cooperator" for disposal. Asked about allegations that Khashoggi had been tortured and beheaded, he said preliminary results of the investigation did not suggest that.The Saudi official presented what he said were Saudi internal intelligence documents which appeared to show the initiative to bring back dissidents as well as the specific one involving Khashoggi. He also showed testimony from those involved in what he described as the 15-man team's cover-up, and the initial results of an internal probe. He did not provide proof to substantiate the findings of the investigation and the other evidence.This narrative is the latest Saudi account that has changed multiple times. The authorities initially dismissed reports that Khashoggi had gone missing inside the consulate as false and said he had left the building soon after entering. When the media reported a few days later that he had been killed there, they called the accusations "baseless."Asked by reporters why the government's version of Khashoggi's death kept changing, the official said the government initial account was based on "false information reported internally at the time."France ‘strongly’ condemns killing of Saudi journalist"Once it became clear these initial mission reports were false, it launched an internal investigation and refrained from further public comment," the official said, adding that the investigation is continuing.Turkish sources say the authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting Khashoggi's murder inside the consulate but have not released it.Riyadh dispatched a high-level delegation to Istanbul on Tuesday and ordered an internal investigation but U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s handling of Khashoggi's death and said questions remain unanswered. Germany and France on Saturday called Saudi Arabia’s explanation of how Khashoggi died incomplete.According to the latest version of the death, the government wanted to convince Khashoggi, who moved to Washington a year ago fearing reprisals for his views, to return to the kingdom as part of a campaign to prevent Saudi dissidents from being recruited by the country's enemies, the official said.To that end, the official said, the deputy head of the General Intelligence Presidency, Ahmed al-Asiri, put together a 15-member team from the intelligence and security forces to go to Istanbul, meet Khashoggi at the consulate and try to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia.“There is a standing order to negotiate the return of dissidents peacefully; which gives them the authority to act without going back to the leadership" the official said."Asiri is the one who formed the team and asked for an employee who worked with (Saud) al-Qahtani and who knew Jamal from the time they both worked at the embassy in London,” he said.The official said Qahtani had signed off on one of his employees conducting the negotiations.New Zealand will not attend Saudi investment summit over Khashoggi deathChokeholdAccording to the plan, the team could hold Khashoggi in a safe house outside Istanbul for "a period of time" but then release him if he ultimately refused to return to Saudi Arabia, the official said.Things went wrong from the start as the team overstepped their orders and quickly employed violence, the official said.Khashoggi was ushered into the consul general's office where an operative named Maher Mutreb spoke to him about returning to Saudi Arabia, according to the government's account.Khashoggi refused and told Mutreb that someone was waiting outside for him and would contact the Turkish authorities if he did not reappear within an hour, the official said.Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, has told Reuters he had handed her his two mobile phones and left instructions that she should wait for him and call an aide to Turkey's president if he did not reappear.Trump, Europeans call Saudi account of Khashoggi death inadequateBack inside the consul's office, according to the official's account, Khashoggi told Mutreb he was violating diplomatic norms and said, "What are you going to do with me? Do you intend to kidnap me?"Mutreb replied, "Yes, we will drug you and kidnap you," in what the official said was an attempt at intimidation that violated the mission's objective.When Khashoggi raised his voice, the team panicked. They moved to restrain him, placing him in a chokehold and covering his mouth, according to the government's account."They tried to prevent him from shouting but he died," the official said. “The intention was not to kill him."Asked if the team had smothered Khashoggi, the official said: "If you put someone of Jamal’s age in this position, he would probably die."Canada, others condemn killing of Saudi journalistMissing BodyTo cover up their misdeed, the team rolled up Khashoggi's body in a rug, took it out in a consular vehicle and handed it over to a "local cooperator" for disposal, the official said. Forensic expert Salah Tubaigy tried to remove any trace of the incident, the official said.Turkish officials have told Reuters that Khashoggi's killers may have dumped his remains in Belgrad Forest adjacent to Istanbul, and at a rural location near the city of Yalova, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Istanbul.Turkish investigators are likely to find out what happened to the body "before long," a senior official said.The Saudi official said the local cooperator is an Istanbul resident but would not reveal his nationality. The official said investigators were trying to determine where the body ended up.Meanwhile, operative Mustafa Madani donned Khashoggi's clothes, eyeglasses and Apple watch and left through the back door of the consulate in an attempt to make it look like Khashoggi had walked out of the building. Madani went to the Sultanahmet district where he disposed of the belongings.The official said the team then wrote a false report for superiors saying they had allowed Khashoggi to leave once he warned that Turkish authorities could get involved and that they had promptly left the country before they could be discovered.Sceptics have asked why so many people, including military officers and a forensics expert specializing in autopsies, were part of the operation if the objective was to convince Khashoggi to return home of his own volition.The disappearance of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider turned critic, has snowballed into a massive crisis for the kingdom, forcing the 82-year-old monarch, King Salman, to personally get involved. It has threatened the kingdom’s business relationships, with several senior executives and government officials shunning an investor conference in Riyadh scheduled for next week and some U.S. lawmakers putting pressure on Trump to impose sanctions and stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.The official said all 15 team members had been detained and placed under investigation, along with three other local suspects.
Amid scepticism, Saudi official provides another version of Khashoggi death
"This applies in my view, for example, to the Siemens CEO who has confirmed his attendance," he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
A spokesman for Siemens said Kaeser had not yet decided whether to attend the conference. He said he expected Kaeser to make a decision on Sunday.
The engineering conglomerate has won orders to supply gas turbines, power plant components and trains to Saudi Arabia. Last year, it signed a declaration of intent to work with Saudi authorities to equip infrastructure projects which Siemens said could be worth at least a billion euros.
Merkel and Maas have reacted strongly to Saudi Arabia's admission that Khashoggi died in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, condemning the killing and demanding Riyadh make clear what happened.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday spoke critical of Saudi Arabia’s official explanation on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and demanded “full facts” be revealed.“Nothing has been cleared up yet [on Khashoggi’s killing], of course we demand that they be cleared up,” Merkel said on Saturday, during a party conference in eastern Germany.Khashoggi, a Saudi national and columnist for The Washington Post, was last seen on Oct. 2 when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, with evidence mounting that he was killed.After days of denying to know his whereabouts, Saudi Arabia on Saturday claimed Khashoggi died during a fight inside the consulate.Separately, in a joint statement, Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas condemned the killing and said Riyadh’s explanation on circumstances of journalist Khashoggi’s death was not sufficient.“We expect from Saudi Arabia to be transparent about the real circumstances for Khashoggi’s death and its background. Those responsible must be brought to justice,” they stressed.Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday that 18 Saudi citizens have been arrested over possible role in the death of Khashoggi, and attempts to conceal and cover what happened.UNESCO chief condemns killing of KhashoggiUS congressman says Jared Kushner may have organized Khashoggi murderWe want justice for Jamal Khashoggi, says head of Turkish-Arab Media AssociationAmnesty urges UN investigation, independent autopsy in Khashoggi deathInvestigators likely to discover what happened to Khashoggi body 'before long'Turkey vows to reveal details of Khashoggi's killing
Merkel demands full facts on Khashoggi’s killing