Khashoggi news: Turkish president Erdogan urges Saudi Arabia to disclose who gave order to murder journalist
UN investigator said journalist was victim of 'extrajudicial execution' after Saudi prosecutor general says murder was premeditated crime
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The Saudi officials who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in their Istanbul consulate must reveal the location of his body, Turkey's president said as he sharply criticised the kingdom's handling of the case.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor will arrive in Turkey on Sunday as part of the investigation and will meet Turkish counterparts.
Turkey's state-run news agency said Turkish prosecutors plan to seek the extradition of 18 suspects.
Anadolu Agency said the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office submitted its request to the justice ministry, and the foreign ministry will formally request the extraditions.
On Thursday, Saudi prosecutors said Khashoggi's killing was premeditated, citing Turkish evidence and changing the country's account again to try to ease international outrage over the murder of a prominent critic of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Turkey has other "information and evidence" about the killing by Saudi officials after Khashoggi entered the consulate on 2 October, and it will eventually reveal that information, Mr Erdogan said.
"There is no point in being too hasty," he said in an indication that Turkey is prepared to maintain pressure on Saudi Arabia, even as the kingdom struggles for ways to end the crisis.
CIA director Gina Haspel was in Turkey earlier this week to review evidence, and she briefed Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday.
What the US president called "one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups" was revealed to the world by Turkish leaks of information, including references to purported audio recordings of the killing, and security camera footage of the Saudi officials involved as they moved around Istanbul.
Key mysteries remaining include whether the killing was carried out with the knowledge of the crown prince, who denies it, and the location of Khashoggi's body.
"It is clear that he has been killed but where is it? You have to show the body," Mr Erdogan said during an address to Turkey's ruling party leaders.
He criticised initial Saudi statements that claimed Khashoggi had left the consulate unharmed after going there for paperwork related to his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.
"He will leave the consulate and not take his fiancee with him? Such childish statements do not go hand in hand with statesmanship," said Mr Erdogan, again urging Saudi Arabia to turn over 18 suspects the kingdom said it had arrested and would punish for the crime.
"If you cannot get them to speak ... then hand them over to us and let us put them on trial," he added.
Mr Khashoggi's son Salah has left Saudi Arabia after the kingdom revoked a travel ban, allowing him to travel to the US.
Mr Khashoggi's fiancee said later that she has not received any condolence call from Saudi officials.
Hatice Cengiz, who is Turkish, also said in an interview on Turkish television channel HaberTurk: "I found myself in a darkness I cannot express."
She said she had asked US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who called her about the case, whether he had any news that would make her happy.
"But he said he didn't," she added.
State department spokesperson Robert Palladino said Washington welcomed the decision to have Salah Khashoggi and his family leave Saudi Arabia. His US destination was not immediately known but his late father lived in the Washington area.
The statement from Saudi prosecutors that evidence showed Khashoggi's killing was premeditated contradicted an earlier Saudi assertion that rogue officials from the kingdom had killed him by mistake in a brawl.
That assertion, in turn, backtracked from an initial statement that Saudi authorities knew nothing about what happened to the columnist for the Washington Post.
The shifting explanations indicate Saudi Arabia is scrambling for a way out of the crisis that has enveloped the world's largest oil exporter and a major US ally in the Middle East.
But a solution seems a long way off, partly because of deepening scepticism in Turkey and elsewhere that the brazen crime could have been carried out without the involvement of Prince Mohammed, the kingdom's heir apparent.
If you want to read how the day's developments happened live, please see what was our live coverage below
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Khashoggi's fiancee has said he assumed Saudi authorities would not interrogate or arrest him in Turkey, though he was concerned tensions would arise when he visited the consul in Istanbul.
In an interview with Turkish broadcaster Haberturk, Hatice Cengiz said Khashoggi had not wanted to go to the Saudi consulate, which he entered on 2 October before being murdered.
She said Khashoggi had said he was treated well during his first visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
He did not tell her to call anyone in case anything happened to him during his second visit, she said, but that he had previously told her to contact Yasin Aktay, an adviser of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, if he faced any trouble in Turkey.
Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, has demanded all those involved in the "savagery" of his killing should be tried and punished.
Ms Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancee, said she has not received any condolence call from Saudi officials after the writer was killed in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul.
"I found myself in a darkness I cannot express," she said.
She said she had asked the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who called her about the case, whether he had any news that would make her happy.
"But he said he didn't," she said .
France's president, Emmanuel Macron, dismissed the calls by several European countries including Germany to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the death of Khashoggi as "pure demagoguery".
"What's the link between arms sales and Mr Khashoggi's murder? I understand the connection with what's happening in Yemen, but there is no link with Mister Khashoggi," Mr Macron told a news conference in Slovakia.
"That's pure demagoguery to say 'we must stop arms sales'. It's got nothing to do with Mr Khashoggi," he added.
Austrian foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, told a German newspaper the European Union should halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the killing of Khashoggi, saying it could also help end "the terrible war in Yemen".
Angela Merkel has said Germany is not ready to export arms to Saudi Arabia until the killing Khashoggi is properly investigated.
Speaking in Prague through a translator after meeting her Czech counterpart, Andrej Babis, the German chancellor said it was necessary to clarify the background of the crime that took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Ms Merkel said Germany has made it clear that until then "we won't deliver any arms to Saudi Arabia."
She also again said that Saudi Arabia has to ensure access for humanitarian aid to get into Yemen, which has been ravaged by a 3-year war between the Saudi-led alliance and Shia rebels.
The fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday said she did not accept an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to visit the White House because she thought it was aimed at influencing public opinion in his own favour.
In her first television interview since the killing, Hatice Cengiz recounted the events leading up to their visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 where Khashoggi handed her his two mobile phones and went inside while she waited outside for him to emerge.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, disappeared after entering the consulate to obtain paperwork necessary for his upcoming marriage to Cengiz, a Turkish national. After weeks of denying knowledge of whereabouts, and changing its story a number of times, Riyadh has said his killing was premeditated.
"Trump invited me to the United States but I perceived it as a statement to win public favour," Cengiz told broadcaster Haberturk, pausing at times during an interview and more than once breaking down in tears.
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