Turkey’s FM Cavusoglu:

Ankara working to carry Khashoggi investigation to UN

Turkey says it is working with other countries to carry the investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to the United Nations, more than two months after the dissident Saudi journalist was gruesomely murdered inside the Arab kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

News ID: 442626

Date: 25 December 2018 - 19:20

RNA - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made the comment during a joint press conference with his Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui in the Tunisian capital of Tunis on Monday, calling on Saudi Arabia to share its findings on the case with the international community.

Earlier this month, the Turkish top diplomat also said that Ankara was in talks with the world body on the probe and that demands for an international probe “have started coming.”

Back in November, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held talks with Cavusoglu on the murder. However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric at the time told reporters that the world body had not yet received a formal request from Ankara regarding the investigation.

In October, a few weeks after the killing, four prominent rights groups - Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders - urged the Turkish government to ask the UN to probe into the disappearance of the ill-fated journo.

Khashoggi, 59, a one-time royal insider who had been critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently, was killed after entering the Saudi diplomatic mission on October 2.

For several weeks, the Saudi government denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance, however, under growing pressure from the international community eventually acknowledged that he was killed and dismembered in a “premeditated murder.”

Ankara believes that a 15-person “hit squad” was sent from Saudi Arabia to Istanbul to commit the unprecedented crime.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already said that the order to slay Khashoggi had been issued from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government, suggesting that the crown prince had ordered such a gruesome murder.

However, the Saudi regime has sought to distance the heir to the Saudi throne from the assassination despite emerging evidence alleging otherwise. A report by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said it had concluded that bin Salman had been behind the gruesome crime.

A purported transcript of an audio recording of Khashoggi’s killing shared with CNN showed that the dissident journalist’s death had been the execution of a premeditated plan, unlike what Saudi officials initially claimed.

The transcript described the last painful moments of Khashoggi’s life, noting that his screams and gasps could be heard on the tape. It also identified the sounds of saw and cutting as the victim's body was dismembered.

The murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, has strained Riyadh’s relations with the West and battered bin Salman’s image abroad. Riyadh claims that the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder.

Saudi Arabia has been facing international condemnation over the brutal crime.