Today, in relation to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at a press conferece inside the State Department:

„Related to Saudi-Arabia, this incident is and stays worrying.

The accusations which came up are alarming and disturbing, I have to admit.

I told my counterpart in Saudi-Arabia very clear our expectations that this case has to be clarified completely.

Those that are responsible must be held accountable.

Therefore, we declared a statement at the last weekend during the G 3 meeting with France and UK.

Yesterday we also released a joint communique as G7 regarding this question. We made clear how worried we are.

We will follow very closely the results of the of the Turkish and Saudi joint investigation team.

We want to know what was happening.

As soon as we will know what was happening, we will execute the necessary consequences.

We will not accept that journalists become more and more into danger around the whole world because of their work. And this applies for Saudi-Arabia as well.

And regarding my travel plans to Saudi-Arabia: We had indeed planned a trip to Saudi Arabia in the context of the dialogue with Saudi Arabia.

We will wait on that now. The Saudi side plans a statement (on the affair), and we will use that as a basis for deciding whether a trip makes sense or not at the current time.“