Boris Johnson accepted a £14,000 all-expenses-paid trip from the Saudi Arabian regime from shortly before journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed.
The former foreign secretary visited Jeddah on September 19 for a three-day visit, according to The Sun.
A source close to Johnson said the visit was made to “discuss his long-standing campaign of improving education for women and girls”.
“He has denounced the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and continues to believe that the UK must hold Saudi Arabia to account for this barbaric act,” the source added.
A Turkish prosecutor today said Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as part of a premeditated killing on October 2.
A statement from chief Istanbul prosecutor Irfan Fidan’s office added that Khashoggi’s body was dismembered and disposed of.
Turkey alleges a hit squad from Saudi Arabia travelled to Istanbul to kill the journalist and then tried to cover it up.
Under mounting pressure, the Saudi regime changed its narrative about Khashoggi’s killing several times.
It eventually admitted he died inside the consulate and only recently acknowledging that Turkish evidence shows his killing was premeditated.
Johnson condemned the killing of Khashoggi as “utterly contemptuous of the norms of civilised behaviour”.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said the British government should not “refuse to turn a blind eye” to the “barbaric act”.