German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the strongest terms possible during a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, and vowed to take appropriate measures in response, the chancellery said.
Merkel “made clear that the exact course of events must be cleared up”, the chancellery said in a statement after yesterday’s telephone call between the two leaders.
“The chancellor urged Saudi Arabia to ensure a rapid, transparent and credible investigation. She stressed that all those responsible must be held accountable,” the statement added.
The United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has said the killing of Khashoggi, who vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, bears the hallmark of an extrajudicial execution.
“What we know is sufficient to suggest very strongly that Mr Khashoggi was the victim of an extrajudicial execution,” Agnes Callamard told Al Jazeera.
“First, we know that killing was in the consulate, which is representative of the state of Saudi Arabia. Second, the individuals present at the time of the disappearance and the alleged killing were representatives of the State. Subsequently, over the last few days at least, Saudi authorities have recognised individuals at the highest levels of the structures of authority were involved in the disappearance and the killing.
“All of those elements indicate that the disappearance and now killing of Jamal Khashoggi bear the hallmark of an extrajudicial execution.”
The European Parliament yesterday urged an “independent and impartial” international probe into the death of Khashoggi, Qatar News Agency reported.
In a resolution, the European Parliament condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the reported torture and killing of the journalist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The resolution also called for those responsible to be “identified and brought to justice,” and for EU member countries to “stand ready to impose targeted sanctions”, including visa bans and freezing assets, as possible sanctions if Saudi agents are found culpable in Khashoggi’s death. 
The European Parliament also demanded an EU-wide arms embargo against Saudi Arabia in response to the murder of Khashoggi, DPA said. 
“The murder is unlikely to have happened without the knowledge or control of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” lawmakers noted.
The parliament resolution was passed by 325 votes in favour, one against and 19 abstentions, during a plenary session in the French city of Strasbourg.
Meanwhile, King Salman spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone yesterday to brief him on the investigation into the murder of Khashoggi, Reuters said, citing the official Saudi press agency.
The king assured Putin that the Saudi government was determined to hold the guilty parties accountable and to make sure “they receive their punishment”.
The Kremlin said in a statement yesterday that Putin and King Salman had addressed the situation related to the “Khashoggi case” during their phone conversation.
DPA also reported that German police are no longer training Saudi border guards as of the beginning of October, the Interior Ministry in Berlin announced yesterday, in a further sign of worsening security ties in the wake of Khashoggi’s death.