Turkish President Erdogan calls on Saudis to put Khashoggi murder suspects on trial in Istanbul
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said journalist Jamal Khashoggi “was murdered in a ferocious manner” in a “planned incident,” laying out a timeline of events from the moment Saudis arrived in Istanbul.
“Jamal Khashoggi was the victim of a ferocious murder,” Erdogan said, adding that “This kind of brutality is against the collective human conscience.”
He proposed that the 18 suspects involved in the murder should stand court trial in Istanbul as the murder was committed there. He added that “all those who played a role in the murder” had to face punishment.
A team of Saudi agents began arriving in Turkey the day before journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, and cameras at the consulate were removed, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
“We stated that we would not remain silent and that we would take every step necessary for justice to be done,” Erdogan said to members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), two days after promising to reveal “the naked truth” of the Khashoggi case.
Khashoggi, 59, a columnist for The Washington Post, had gone missing since entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. His body has not been recovered yet.
After denying knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday said he was killed during a fight inside its Istanbul consulate.