The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, reportedly told the White House that Jamal Khashoggi was a dangerous Islamist in a phone call days after the journalist was murdered. 

Mohammed bin Salman told Donald Trump’s son-in-law and John Bolton, the president’s national security advisor, that Mr Khashoggi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

So far Saudi Arabia has arrested 18 men on suspicion of killing Mr Khashoggi but denied that Crown Prince Mohammed ordered his death or had any involvement in it.

Jamal Khashoggi’s family have consistently disputed that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that was once tolerated by Saudi Arabia but is now banned.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not weighed a terrorist group by Western countries, although it is banned by several authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, including Egypt and the UAE.