On November 12th, 2018, Jean-Yves Le Drian insisted on French television that he was not aware of evidence supplied by Turkey regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi killers. Yet no fewer than seven French diplomats and intelligence agents have contradicted this claim by France's foreign minister. Thomas Cantaloube, Lucie Delaporte, René Backmann, Nicolas Cheviron, Matthieu Suc and Rachida El Azzouzi investigate.
The America president Donald Trump is regularly mocked for his inconsistent attitude towards the Khashoggi affair, over which he goes to great lengths to deny the evidence to shield Saudi Arabia from the repercussions of the brutal murder of the Saudi journalist. But questions must be raised, too, over France's own stance and in particular that of its foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. On November 12th, 2018, Le Drian said in relation to the disappearance and presumed murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul: “For the moment I am not aware of [information passed on by Turkey]. If the Turkish president [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has information to give us, then he should give it to us.”
