Saudi crown prince says Turkey can search consulate for missing critic | Gulf News |

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said he's ready to allow Turkey to search the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul for a Saudi journalist critical of his rule who went missing after entering the building.

"The premises are sovereign territory, but we will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do," Prince Mohammed said in an interview on Wednesday at a royal palace in Riyadh. "We have nothing to hide."

Jamal Khashoggi, who's been living in self-imposed exile for the past year, has been missing since Tuesday. His fiancee and friends say they fear he's been detained or kidnapped for his criticism of the government. The prince, however, said Khashoggi left the building not long after he entered.

He said the arrests of clerics, women activists and some businessmen over the past year were a small price to pay for peacefully eradicating extremism in the world's top oil exporter.

The prince said authorities have detained about 1,500 people over the past three years on national security grounds. The number, he said, pales in comparison with Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has locked up tens of thousands since a failed coup against him in 2016.

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