Saudi attorney general leading Khashoggi case arrives in Turkey

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Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor has arrived in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb landed at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport on a private plane overnight.

He met with Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Irfan Fidan at the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse in an approximately one-hour and 15 minutes meeting closed to the press.

The attorney general will later visit the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi was killed.

Turkey believes Saudi and Turkish prosecutors sharing information on the investigation into the killing of Khashoggi is useful, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Monday, adding that the cooperation should continue.

He made the comments during a news conference with Azerbaijani and Georgian foreign ministers. He said Saudi had proposed the visit from its public prosecutor to Turkey and called on the kingdom to conclude the investigation as soon as possible.

The case has brought near unprecedented international scrutiny on Saudi Arabia, which is seeking to draw a line under the crisis after offering a series of differing narratives in the weeks following Khashoggi’s murder.

The 59-year-old Washington Post contributor, who had criticized Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.

Gruesome reports in the Turkish media have alleged he was killed and dismembered by a team sent from Saudi Arabia to silence him.

The Saudi prosecutor traveled to Istanbul after acknowledging last week that the killing was “premeditated”, based on the evidence of a Turkish investigation, contradicting a previous official statement that it happened accidentally.

The meeting between the Saudi prosecutor and the Istanbul chief prosecutor lasted for 75 minutes. No details were provided following the meeting.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir had vowed Riyadh would conduct a “full” investigation.

“We discussed it… the need of transparency, full and complete investigation. Full agreement from FM Jubeir, no reservations at all,” Mattis said following talks in Bahrain.

He added he was confident that the Saudi investigation would include Turkey’s findings.

“Certainly Turkey with the evidence that they have compiled will ensure that there is more than one review of what is going on there and I am certain the investigation will include the evidence that Turkey has put forward so far,” Mattis said.

Saudi authorities have arrested 18 men over the murder and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has requested they be extradited for trial in Turkey.

Riyadh has dismissed the request, saying they will be prosecuted in Saudi Arabia.

The body of Khashoggi, who was once an insider in Saudi royal circles, remains missing.

Erdoğan has called on Riyadh to reveal the location of the body, indicating that his country had more evidence to reveal about the killing.

Prince Mohammad, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, has denounced the murder as “repulsive” and denied any involvement, while the Saudi leadership has pushed responsibility down the chain of command.

Erdoğan has expressed skepticism about Saudi’s shifting explanations of the killing and has called on the kingdom to hold to account all those responsible, no matter how highly placed.

Turkey has said it shared information regarding the investigation with other countries, including the United States, Germany, France and Russia.

 

 

Source:Dailysabah.com