Erdogan urges prosecutor to reveal the truth

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor, who visited on Tuesday the consulate in Istanbul where Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, to investigate who ordered the hit on the journalist.

Khashoggi’s death has brought near unprecedented international scrutiny on Saudi Arabia and its powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Erdogan, who says a 15-person team travelled from Riyadh to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi, has pressed Saudi authorities to reveal the truth

“Who sent these 15 people? As Saudi public prosecutor, you have to ask that question, so you can reveal it,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara on Tuesday, shortly after the head of the Saudi investigation entered the kingdom’s consulate.

“Now we have to solve this case. No need to prevaricate, it makes no sense to try to save certain people,” said Erdogan.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to draw a line under the crisis after offering a series of differing narratives following the journalist’s disappearance.

Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb travelled to Istanbul this week after being the first Saudi official to acknowledge the killing was “premeditated” based on the results of Turkey’s investigation.

He met Istanbul chief prosecutor Irfan Fidan on Monday and asked to be given the full findings of the Turkish investigation, including all images and audio recordings, Turkish broadcaster TRT reported.

The Turkish investigators rejected the request, TRT said, instead calling on the Saudi prosecutor to reveal information about the location of Khashoggi’s body.

They also repeated Erdogan’s call for the 18 suspects detained by Saudi Arabia over the murder be sent to Turkey for trial, according to TRT. Riyadh has refused the request.

Mojeb met with Turkish investigators again on Tuesday before visiting the consulate for around an hour and a half and leaving without making a statement.

Khashoggi, 59, was an insider in Saudi royal circles before going into self-imposed exile in the US last year after falling out with the crown prince.

He entered the consulate to obtain paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.

Riyadh initially insisted that Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, but as pressure grew, Saudi state media changed the story and said Khashoggi died when an argument descended into a brawl.

The story was undercut by footage, which Erdogan con- firmed, of a Saudi official acting as a body double for Khashoggi, wearing the journalist’s clothes when leaving the consulate to pretend to be the dead man.

The search for Khashoggi’s body continues, after gruesome reports in the Turkish media alleged it was cut up into multiple pieces.

Beyond the detention of the 18 suspects, five Saudi intelligence chiefs have been sacked, including two who were part of Prince Mohammed’s inner circle.

The affair has tarnished the image the crown prince, the de facto leader of t he oil-rich Gulf nation.