TURKISH officials have accused Saudi Arabia of murdering Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Turkish investigators say that their “initial assessment” is that Mr Khashoggi was killed at the consulate. Saudi Arabia has called the accusation “baseless” and says it is working to locate him.

Mr Khashoggi is a Saudi subject but has lived in the United States for the past year. He had written pieces highly critical of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a key player in the Gulf kingdom’s despotic government and the main champion of its brutal war against Yemen.

Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt said that “if reports of Jamal’s murder are true, it is a monstrous and unfathomable act.

“Jamal was — or as we hope is — a committed, courageous journalist. He writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity and freedom.”

The Post said a Turkish official had briefed it that a 15-member team had come from Saudi Arabia to attend to the “pre-planned murder.”

Another investigator briefed the Associated Press agency that Mr Khashoggi was believed to have been killed at the consulate and “the body was subsequently moved out.”

The missing journalist had visited the consulate in order to complete paperwork required to marry his Turkish fiancee, who insists that she does not believe he is dead. The Saudis say that he left the consulate.