Intelligence report on Khashoggi killing removes names of three suspects

A Turkish forensic police officer carries evidence packs while he leaves the Saudi Arabiain Consulate on 18 October 2018 in Istanbul. [OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images]

March 1, 2021

The long-awaited US intelligence report released last Friday about the Saudi government's role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi has been taken down off the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) without explanation. It was replaced with another version that has removed the names of three people who were initially thought to have been complicit in the gruesome assassination over two years ago in Istanbul.

The long-awaited declassified report concluded that the Kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, "approved" and almost certainly ordered the murder.

A link to the first report sent out by the ODNI went dead soon after the original version was posted online. It was replaced by a second version which had three fewer names on a list that included the names of 18 people. These are individuals of whom the ODNI says it has "high confidence" that they had "participated in, ordered, or were otherwise complicit in or responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi on behalf of Mohammed Bin Salman."

Read: Gulf allies back Riyadh on Khashoggi murder report

The ODNI declined to clarify why the names were originally on the list and what roles, if any, they may have had in Khashoggi's killing. "We put a revised document on the website because the original one erroneously contained three names which should not have been included," an ODNI spokesperson told CNN.

Abdulla Mohammed Alhoeriny is one of the three names removed from the list. He was not previously connected with Khashoggi's killing. CNN cited a person familiar with the inner workings of Saudi intelligence, who said that Alhoeriny is the brother of General Abdulaziz Bin Mohammed Al-Howraini, a minister who is in charge of the powerful Presidency of State Security which oversees multiple intelligence and counterterrorism agencies.

The two other names that appeared in the unclassified intelligence report and then disappeared are Yasir Khalid Alsalem and Ibrahim Al-Salim. It was not immediately clear who they are.