Saudis must say who ordered killing: Erdogan

ANKARA:- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated his country's call for Riyadh to disclose who ordered the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul and what has happened to his body.

"Who gave this order?" Erdogan told members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara on Friday. "Who gave the order for 15 people to come to Turkey?" he said, referring to a 15-man Saudi squad that allegedly flew into Istanbul hours before the killing. 

Erdogan also noted that Riyadh must reveal the location of Khashoggi's body and the identity of the "local cooperator" who Saudi officials earlier said had taken the body from Saudi agents after the journalist was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

The Turkish president's remarks echoed earlier comments by his Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who on Thursday urged Saudi Arabia to answer questions over the assassination.

"There are still questions that need answers" over the premeditated murder, Cavusoglu said, asking Riyadh to explain "who gave them the orders" and "where the body is."

He pointed to an announcement by Saudi authorities that they had arrested 18 men in connection with the death, urging Riyadh to explain why they had been arrested.

"You admit they did it, but why are they not saying where?" Cavusoglu told a press conference in Ankara with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.

Turkey urges Saudi Arabia to say who ordered the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and where his body is.

In his Friday comments, Erdogan also announced that Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor was due to meet with the Istanbul prosecutor in the Turkish city on Sunday.

The Turkish president had earlier urged that all those behind the murder should be brought to justice and tried in Istanbul.

"My demand is that 18 people be tried in Istanbul," Erdogan said in an address to lawmakers from his ruling party at parliament in Ankara on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said Thursday a joint Saudi-Turkish investigation shows that Khashoggi's murder was "premeditated," dismissing an earlier account that the dissident journalist had died in a botched operation to "negotiate" his return to the kingdom.

"Information from the Turkish side affirms that the suspects in Khashoggi's case premeditated their crime," said a statement from the Saudi public prosecutor.

The statement added that Saudi prosecutors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.