ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia on Friday to disclose who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, as well as the location of his body, heightening international pressure on the kingdom to come clean on the case.
Erdogan said Turkey had more information than it had shared so far about the killing of Khashoggi, a prominent US-based critic of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that has pitched the world’s top oil exporter and pivotal Middle East strategic partner of the West into a serious crisis.
The kingdom, Erdogan added, also must reveal the identity of the "local cooperator" whom Saudi officials earlier said had taken charge of Khashoggi’s body from Saudi agents after his killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said on Thursday the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was premeditated, contradicting a previous official statement that it happened accidentally during a tussle in the consulate.
"Who gave this order?" Erdogan said in a speech to members of his AK Party in Ankara. "Who gave the order for 15 people to come to Turkey?" he said, referring to a 15-man Saudi security team Turkey said flew into Istanbul hours before the killing.
Saudi officials initially denied having anything to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate, before announcing that an internal inquiry suggested he was killed by mistake in a botched operation to return him to the kingdom.
The kingdom’s shifting explanations of Khashoggi’s killing have stirred scepticism and spurred calls for Saudi transparency to determine who was ultimately responsible. He visited the consulate for paperwork need to allow him to remarry.
Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said she did not accept an invitation from US President Donald Trump, the kingdom’s staunchest Western champion, to visit the White House after Khashoggi’s murder because she thought it was aimed at influencing public opinion in his own favour.
In her first television interview since the killing, Cengiz recounted the events leading up to their visit to the consulate on Oct
2 where Khashoggi handed her his two mobile phones and went inside while she waited outside for him to emerge.
"Trump invited me to the United States but I perceived it as a statement to win public favour," Cengiz told broadcaster Haberturk, pausing at times during an interview and more than once breaking down in tears.
Trump and Prince Mohammed have cultivated warm ties though the US president said earlier this week that the crown prince, as the kingdom’s de facto ruler, bore ultimate responsibility for the operation against Khashoggi.
Trump also said Riyad had staged the "worst cover-up ever" over the killing. Cengiz also said Khashoggi was concerned tensions would arise when he visited the consulate on Oct 2, though he had assumed he would not ultimately be arrested or harmed in Turkey. "His local network in Turkey was very good as you know, his political network as well," Cengiz said.