Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the perpetrators in the murder of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi were “well known”, and that audio recordings of the murder show that people close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) were involved in the killing.
Speaking at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) judicial conference in Istanbul, Erdogan said that the instructions given to the individuals who carried out the murder were handled professionally.
Erdogan went on to say that the Saudi public prosecutor, Saud al-Mu’jab, provided Turkey with no new information during his recent visit to Istanbul.
“He left Istanbul with five bags of nuts. The issues he cares about are different to what we care about,” Erdogan said.
While Erdogan criticised the silence of some countries with regards to the assassination of Khashoggi, he condoned the move by the US Senate on Thursday to unanimously adopt a resolution holding Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed responsible for the murder of Khashoggi.
Commenting on the vote, Erdogan said, “We followed the [events at] the US Senate yesterday, and it will not stop at that.
“It will continue and develop, because we have given the Americans and their intelligence apparatus all the information.
“For all who seek it, our goal is to achieve justice. It is the basis of everything.”
Khashoggi was killed on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents needed for his planned marriage.
After giving contradictory statements about the whereabouts of the writer, Saudi Arabia admitted that Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate and his body was dismembered. The kingdom maintains that Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the killing, which Turkey said was ordered at the highest level of Saudi leadership.
Despite reports of a CIA assessment that MBS at least had knowledge of the murder, Trump reiterated on Tuesday in an interview with the Reuters news agency, that he stood by the crown prince.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
