ISTANBUL, (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia must cooperate with the investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and let Turkish officials enter its Istanbul consulate, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on today.
Cavusoglu spoke to reporters during a visit to London, after a delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey for a joint investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance on Oct. 2.
“We have not yet seen cooperation on this subject and we want to see it,” Cavusoglu said in the comments, which were broadcast on Turkish television.
Turkish newspaper Sabah reported today that Turkey’s investigation into Khashoggi’s fate after he entered the Saudi consulate revealed recordings made on his Apple Watch purportedly indicating he was tortured and killed. Khashoggi has been a prominent critic of Riyadh and a U.S. resident who has written columns for the Washington Post.
However, it was not clear whether data from Khashoggi’s watch could have been transmitted to his phone outside, or how investigators could have retrieved it without obtaining the watch themselves.
Technology experts say it is highly unlikely the watch could have recorded actions inside the embassy and uploaded them to an iCloud account. Most models of the watch require that it be within 30 to 50 feet (9-15 m) of the iPhone it is paired with to upload data to Apple’s iCloud, they said.
Even newer models that can communicate with the cloud directly via wireless require either connection to a nearby WiFi network or a type of cellular connection that is not available in Turkey, the experts said.
Apple Watch does not unlock with a fingerprint, which the Sabah report said Saudi agents used to access the device, and it does not include a recording capability by default, the experts said.
Apple Inc declined to comment on the Sabah story.
