The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has made fresh demands on Saudi Arabia to disclose the location of Jamal Khashoggi’s body and identify who ordered his killing, in a sign that Ankara is willing to keep up the pressure on the beleaguered kingdom.
Eighteen men arrested in Saudi Arabia “must know” who killed the journalist and where his remains were taken, Erdoğan said in parliament on Friday, adding that the person who “gave the orders” for the alleged murder be brought to justice and the suspects extradited for trial in Istanbul.
Riyadh’s changing accounts of what happened have been “comic”, the president said, calling them “childish statements … not compatible with the seriousness of a nation state”.
“Who gave that order? If you want to eliminate the suspicion [about you], the key question is these 18 people,” Erdoğan said. “You know how to make people talk,” he added, in a reference to the powerful Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
“But if you cannot make them talk, then hand them over to us. This incident happened in Istanbul. Let us put them on trial.”
Erdoğan also urged the Saudis to identify the “local collaborator” whom Saudi authorities say disposed of Khashoggi’s remains.
His pointed remarks come after he spoke to the heir to the Saudi throne for the first time on Wednesday about cooperating in the evolving diplomatic crisis.
Erdoğan has used the case to exert pressure on his Saudi rival, whom many believe must at a minimum have been aware of the operation, which involved several members of his personal guard and other senior officials.
Riyadh has gone to great lengths to insulate Bin Salman from any responsibility for Khashoggis’s death.
After various denials and explanations for what happened to the dissident Saudi writer when he attended a consulate appointment in Istanbul this month, Saudi Arabia said for the first time on Thursday the investigation’s evidence pointed to a “premeditated” killing. The guardian
