There is no suggestion he gave the earrings to the Duchess in person, or indeed has even met her. Court Circular records show he had lunch with the Queen and Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace on March 7, 2018. It is understood the diamond earrings were presented by MBS as a wedding gift for Meghan during his three-day State visit to Britain in March 2018. 'Nowhere in the gift policy does it say you have to wear them,' one source said. While the Royal Family's guidelines regarding the acceptance and ownership of gifts were adhered to, The Mail on Sunday has learned that Palace aides were frustrated that the earrings were worn. On November 14, the Duchess wore the earrings again at Prince Charles's 70th birthday party at Buckingham Palace.Īt the time, the Kensington Palace press office told the media that the earrings had been 'borrowed' but did not say from whom. He wrote: 'Official Saudi denials that he himself had anything to do with the murder – in a plot hatched from right within his inner circle… have been met with profound scepticism.' Ten days later, on November 2, the BBC's respected security correspondent Frank Gardner wrote an article on the BBC News website entitled: 'Khashoggi murder: Is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed finished?' The Duchess of Sussex wore the earrings given to her as a wedding gift by MBS to a state dinner in Fiji on October 23. Sir John's damning comments were reported widely.
Later that day Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, told the BBC's World at One radio programme that 'all the evidence points to being ordered and carried out by people close to Mohammed bin Salman'. A day later, The Sun told how one of MBS's bodyguards was suspected of the brutal killing. On October 18, The Times reported how a close circle of officials and security officers around MBS were the focus of the murder probe. Mr Khashoggi was an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime and suspicion quickly grew that the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, was involved. Within two hours he was killed by a Saudi hit squad, who dismembered his body using a bone saw. Fearless dissident Jamal Khashoggi was last seen alive entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on the afternoon of October 2, 2018.