khashoggi
© Agence France-Presse/Ozan Kose; Demiroran News Agency(L) Turkish police stand guard as they cordoned off an underground car park, on October 22, 2018 in Istanbul (R) Screenshot from CCTV footage. Jamal Khashoggi arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018
There is strong evidence that the killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul came as a result of a pre-planned operation rather than a spontaneous incident, the Turkish president said.

Speaking before the Turkish parliament on Tuesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi Arabia needs to provide maximum transparency of the investigation into the high-profile death, probably even holding the trial in the Turkish capital. During his address, the president also praised local and international media for pressuring Riyadh over the case, saying it forced Saudi Arabia to allow a thorough investigation inside the consulate.


What's more, the Turkish foreign ministry and Erdogan personally pressured the Saudi leadership to cut through the obfuscation effort at the consulate, the president boasted. That eventually led to a Saudi confirmation that Khashoggi was killed.

The acknowledgment that the crime did happen was a "major step" forward, Erdogan stressed, calling on Riyadh to punish all individuals responsible for it regardless of their status.

"The information and the evidence we have so far collected indicate that Jamal Khashoggi was slain in a vicious, violent murder," he said. "Whitewashing such barbarity will injure the conscience of entire humanity."

Elaborating on Riyad's claim that the death of the prominent writer might have come as a result of a spontaneous incident, Erdogan insisted it was not the case. "There are strong signs the incident was not a momentary result of something that erupted on sight but rather the result of a planned operation."


Comment: The Turkish Sabah newspaper is reporting that the hit was ordered by then Saudi Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmed Asiri and assigned to the attache of the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul:
According to the outlet, citing a law enforcement source, the attache of the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul, Ahmad Abdullah Muzaini, was inside the building of the Saudi consulate on September 28, when Khashoggi visited it for the first time to make the arrangements needed for receiving papers for his remarriage.

The newspaper also claimed that on September 29, Muzaini flew to Riyadh, where he met with Asiri and was instructed about the tasks of a special group comprising 15 people, who later arrived in Istanbul to assassinate the journalist.

On October 1, the attache returned to Istanbul, where he briefed Saudi Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi on the details of the plan for the journalist's murder. On October 2, when Khashoggi was already killed, Muzaini returned to the Saudi capital, the news outlet added.

According to Erdogan, the individuals named by Saudi Arabia as suspects in the murder are also the same as those identified by the Turkish investigation.

Ankara is now particularly interested in a claim that a Turkish party was involved in the disposal of Khashoggi's body after the murder and wants to bring that person to justice. But it was up to the Saudis to identify this "local co-conspirator," the Turkish leader argued.


Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 after going to the consulate for paperwork needed for his planned marriage. The Saudi officials initially denied any knowledge of what had happened to him, insisting that he left the diplomatic building freely.

But after weeks of denial Riyadh finally admitted last weekend that Khashoggi was killed in what was described a spontaneous brawl sparked by attempts to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis said 18 suspects in the case have been arrested.

While the Saudis insist that the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the de-facto ruler of the country, was not involved in the death of his prominent critic, the explanation failed to satisfy many politicians and journalists, who say there is no way an operation targeting Khashoggi could have been launched without an authorization from the king's son. Erdogan noticeably didn't mention bin Salman in his Tuesday speech.

Amid the uproar, the Trump administration threatened Saudi Arabia with economic sanctions over the suspected murder. However, the explanation and supposed purge within Saudi intelligence seem to have convinced the White House that no further action is necessary.

Saudi Arabia is a long-time strategic partner of the US as well as a major buyer of American arms. Those ties and trade deals would have been put in peril if Washington did impose sanctions on the Saudi leadership.