Turkish police on Monday searched two villas in the North-west province of Yalova in connection with Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, state media reported.
Police were at the villas with sniffer dogs and were supported in their search by drones, state news agency, Anadolu reported.
The villas are owned by Saudi Arabian businessmen, the report said, adding that photographs of the Saudi monarch and crown prince were hanging inside one of them.
The search was concentrated on wells in the gardens of the villas in Termal district, the report added.
Two wells were drained with assistance from the fire department.
Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2. His remains have not yet been located.
The Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office, which is in charge of the investigation, said that one day before the journalist’s death, one of the suspects involved in his murder contacted a Saudi citizen, who lived in Yalova.
The suspect, allegedly one of a “hit squad” of 15, and the Yalova resident, spoke about disposing or hiding Khashoggi’s remains after his body was dismembered, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, according to Anadolu.
On October 31, Istanbul Chief Prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said that Khashoggi was strangled to death in the consulate and his body was dismembered in a premeditated operation, and that his body was disposed of.
Turkish security forces searched a villa in Yalova province, near Istanbul in late October with media reports saying at the time that it belonged to a member of a Saudi “hit squad.”
That search took place as Turkish President, Recep Erdogan, cited Yalova as one of the two areas that Saudi consulate employees allegedly scouted ahead of Khashoggi’s murder.
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