Turkey on Friday accused the "highest levels of the Saudi government" of sponsoring the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed a month ago at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
"We know that the perpetrators" of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi "are among the 18 suspects held by Saudi Arabia," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote in a column in the Washington Post , a daily newspaper in which Saudi journalist criticizes the Ryad regime.
The editorialist Jamal Khashoggi was killed on October 2 at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul where he went for administrative steps towards his marriage to Hatice Cengiz. The journalist was strangled and his body was dismembered. A Turkish newspaper reported on Friday that his body had been disbanded.
"We also know that these individuals came to carry out their orders: to kill Khashoggi and to leave. Finally, we know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government , " denounced the Turkish president, without accusing the King of Saudi Arabia.
King Salman, out of cause?
Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured not to believe "for a single second that King Salman, the guardian of the holy mosques, ordered the coup" . On the other hand, he does not mention the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, the strongman of the kingdom, whose image has been considerably tarnished by this assassination condemned by the international community.
The journalist's Turkish fiancee called on Friday the international community, in a forum published in several media, to "take real, serious and concrete steps to bring to light the truth and bring those responsible to justice . "
A request she then made to President Donald Trump in a ceremony in memory of his fiancé in Washington. "It's been exactly one month since we lost Jamal," she said in a pre-recorded message.
"Nothing could relieve me of the pain that followed the atrocity of what I went through. And the main reason for this is that her body has still not been found, " she added.
US diplomacy said Thursday that "the remains of Mr. Khashoggi" should "be located and returned to his family for an appropriate burial as soon as possible . "
But according to an adviser to the Turkish president, the killers "did not just dismember it, they got rid of it by dissolving it" . "According to the latest information we have, the reason they cut the body is to dissolve it more easily," Yasin Aktay told Hürriyet daily.
The Istanbul prosecutor's office said this week that Jamal Khashoggi had been "dismembered" and that the killers had "got rid of" his body, without specifying how. An anonymous Turkish official then told the Washington Post that the authorities were examining a track for acid dissolution at the consulate or at the nearby consul's residence.
Israel defends Saudi "stability"
After initially claiming that Mr. Khashoggi had quickly left the consulate, and then argued that he had died in a fight, Ryad eventually evoked an "unauthorized operation" by the authorities. While several Turkish officials and media have directly incriminated the crown prince, the Saudi kingdom is trying to clear him.
Washington is putting pressure on Ryad for this case to be cleared up, but seems to give the benefit of the doubt to MBS, a powerful Washington ally in the Middle East.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Thursday on the "unacceptable" nature of the murder of the journalist, while stressing that the United States had "the intention" to preserve relations. And he said he was satisfied with the cooperation of the Saudi authorities to shed light on this crime.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country shares with Saudi Arabia his relentless hostility to Shiite Iran, stressed the importance of the "stability" of the Saudi kingdom, while describing the "horrible" murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Amnesty International on Friday urged UN member states "to put an end to their deafening silence against Saudi Arabia," urging them to monitor the kingdom's "cruelty" after the assassination.
"The appalling death of Jamal Khashoggi has shown how far the Saudi authorities can go in their crackdown on peaceful opposition, a crackdown that has only intensified since Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince , " he added. Amnesty International's campaign director in the Middle East, Samah Hadid, said in a statement.