Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that recordings related to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death have been passed on to Saudi Arabia, the US, the UK, Germany and France.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a supporter-turned-critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, was killed inside the kingdom consulate in Istanbul on October 2 when he went there for paperwork for his forthcoming marriage.
Speaking before his departure for Paris for World War I commemorations, Erdogan said: “We passed on the recordings. We gave them to Saudi Arabia, to America, to the Germans, French and the English — we gave them all.” However, he did not elaborate on what was in the recordings.
“They listened to the conversations which took place here, they know”, he said. No other country admitted hearing the said recording.
Erdogan said the killer, or killers, would be known to the 18 suspects identified by Turkish authorities — including 15 men who arrived from Saudi Arabia shortly before Khashoggi’s death.
He again called on Saudi Arabia to provide answers as to what happened to Khashoggi and his body.
Saudi authorities initially denied all knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate before admitting that he was killed “accidentally” in a fist fight at the consulate by “rogue” agents.
However, it denied the ruling royal family’s involvement in the killing.
The Saudis also denied comments allegedly made by the Saudi Crown Prince describing Khashoggi as a dangerous Islamist.
There is still no consensus on how Khashoggi died. Initially, Turkish media had reported that the country had audio recordings proving that the journalist had been tortured before being murdered.
Last week, however, Turkey said he had been strangled immediately after entering the consulate and his body dismembered “in accordance with plans made in advance”.
No body has yet been found and a Turkish official said it had been dissolved in acid.
