Jamal Khashoggi's murder was 'planned days in advance', says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Ankara, Oct 23 (IBNS): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was planned days in advance.
He was quoted as saying by BBC that Turkey had strong evidence Khashoggi was killed in a premeditated and "savage" murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.
The President called for the suspect of the incident to be tried in Istanbul.
Khashoggi went missing on Oct 2. He was last seen alive entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
He lived in a self imposed exile and was a fierce critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, questioning his 'one man show' tactics.
The journalist was visiting the consulate to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage.
After weeks of denial, Saudi Arabian authorities finally revealed on Friday that Khashoggi was dead.
The minister also termed his death as a rogue operation, adding that the top officials were unaware of it.
"Even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this," Adel al-Jubeir said.
Meanwhile, the kingdom has arrested 18 people so far, pertaining to the scribe's death.
Two close aides of the Crown Prince too have been removed from their positions.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.