Turkey seeks arrest of two former Saudi crown prince advisors

DPA,05TH DECEMBER, 2018 -A court in Istanbul has issued arrest warrants for two top Saudi officials, both former advisors to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over the killing of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi, state news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday.

The Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office asked the court to issue the arrest warrants, citing “strong suspicion” that Ahmed al-asiri, former deputy chief of the intelligence service, and Saud al-qahtani, a former close adviser to Mohammed, were among the planners of the murder. Khashoggi, a Saudi national and a vocal critic of Mohammed, was killed inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi officials have repeatedly denied reports that the crown prince is linked to the murder.

Khashoggi’s remains have not yet been located.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office cited “new evidence” as part of its ongoing probe to charge the two people with “planned and deliberate murder with monstrous intent or torture,” according to Anadolu.

The office separately identified 15 alleged members of a hit squad who travelled to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi as well as three Saudi consulate employees. All 18 left Istanbul following the murder, it added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has kept the pressure on Riyadh to reveal the perpetrators behind Khashoggi’s killing.

It is in Saudi Arabia’s best interest to disclose what exactly happened to Khashoggi, the Turkish president told reporters in Argentina over the weekend, adding that Turkey had shared information related to the killing with several countries, including Germany and the United States.