Khashoggi’s Death: KSA Admits Body was Dismembered, Turkey Wants to Try Murderers

Local Editor

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the 15-man Saudi team involved in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi should be tried in Turkey.

Cavusoglu made the comment in reaction to an announcement by Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor who detailed Riyadh's actions on the case and demanded death penalty for five defendants.

"We find the statement of Saudi Arabia about the murder of Khashoggi positive but not sufficient,” Cavusoglu said.

He further said: “The Saudi side will share the details of its investigation with our prosecutor's office. But we already know that the murder was planned in advance and that the journalist was first killed and the body was later dismembered.”

"And how they would be killing and then disposing of the body was also planned, special devices were brought to the consulate general," Cavusoglu said, stressing that this is not something that happens instantaneously.

Earlier in the day, Saudi public prosecutor released the results of the long-awaited investigation into the death of Khashoggi, saying a team of Saudi agents who had been dispatched to Istanbul with orders to bring him home alive had instead killed the journalist and dismembered his body. 

Shaalan al-Shaalan, a spokesman for the prosecutor, told a news conference in Riyadh that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had no knowledge of the operation.

Khashoggi died after being drugged and then dismembered, he admitted in the first Saudi confirmation of how he was killed.

The journalist's body parts were then handed over to an agent outside the consulate grounds, the spokesman said.

The deputy chief of Saudi Arabia's intelligence, General Ahmed al-Assiri, gave the order to repatriate Khashoggi -- and "the head of the negotiating team" that flew to the Istanbul consulate had ordered his murder, the spokesman said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team