Turkey’s Erdogan: There’s a game to ‘protect’ Khashoggi murderers

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “a game” is being played to protect “someone” who is involved in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul.

Erdogan said the Turkish Attorney General has asked his Saudi counterpart about the person who issued orders to kill Khashoggi, adding that the Saudi chief prosecutor replied that “this is yet to be investigated”.

“There is no need to put unreasonable obstacles in front of the assassination case of Jamal Khashoggi,” Erdogan said.

Remembering Jamal: A ‘voice of the voiceless’ 

The president added that he had informed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron “of details related to Khashoggi’s crime which they did not know”.

The Saudi attorney-general arrived in Istanbul two days ago and met with the Turkish attorney general. It has been reported that Ankara refused to share all information regarding Khashoggi’s murder with Riyadh.

Khashoggi was last seen on 2 October when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. Turkey has said it has audio recordings which prove he was killed in the building. After first denying knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts and claiming he had left the consulate 20 minutes after his arrival, Saudi authorities admitted he had been killed on site by what they described as “rogue agents”.

READ: HRW’s 10 embarrassing questions to Saudi’s Bin Salman