Turkey wants extradition for suspects in killing
ANKARA, TURKEY — Turkey on Friday intensified its demands for Saudi Arabia to extradite 18 suspects in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a call that is likely to be met with resistance from the kingdom and could escalate tensions between the U.S.-allied regional powers.
Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée, meanwhile, gave an anguished and tearful TV interview in which she said she keeps asking herself if she had missed some signs and should have prevented him from entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 — questions that she says she cannot answer.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office submitted a request for Saudi Arabia to hand over the suspects in the killing, and Turkey’s Foreign Ministry will formally notify the kingdom, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The Saudi government has said it arrested and would itself punish 18 people for what it described as a rogue operation by officials who killed Khashoggi in the consulate.
“We expect our request (for the suspects’) return to be fulfilled because this atrocious event took place in Turkey,” said Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul.
Saudi Arabia has returned suspects to Turkey before. The stakes are much higher in the Khashoggi case, however, as some of those implicated are close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s heir apparent whose condemnation of the killing failed to ease suspicions that he was involved.
Turkish prosecutors want the suspects to face prosecution for “premeditated killing executed with fiendish sentiments or by causing torment,” according to the Anadolu agency.
“The reasoning behind the extradition request is that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Turkey by Saudi nationals who travelled to Turkey for this specific purpose,” a senior Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Turkey’s judicial system is better equipped to serve the cause of justice in this case, the official said, adding: “The court proceedings in Turkey will be open to international observers in order to ensure the greatest level of transparency.”
Turkey alleges a 15-member hit squad was sent to Istanbul to kill the journalist, a one-time Saudi insider who became a critic of Prince Mohammed.