Turkey Has Evidence to Share on Khashoggi, Foreign Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey's government has more evidence to share on the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

“We have shared some evidence with the public, we have also shared it with the Saudi government," state-run Anadolu Agency cited Cavusoglu as saying at a press conference in Tokyo. “There's also some other evidence we haven't shared” that will be made public following the investigation, he said.

Turkey has also provided some evidence to third countries, Cavusoglu said. He rejected any explanation of Khashoggi's killing that laid blame upon a group of lower-level officials acting on their own initiative.

“These 15 people who came to Turkey didn't come on their own, they had an order," Cavusoglu said. “Without an order and permission, 15 people couldn't come from Saudi Arabia to murder a Saudi citizen."

Turkey is “certain," however, that the order wasn't given by the Saudi king, 82-year-old Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, Cavusoglu said.

Saudi Toxicologist, Chemist Said to Erase Khashoggi Murder Signs

Turkish prosecutors have said that the Washington Post columnist was strangled soon after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month and his body was dismembered in a premeditated hit. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne, has denied any involvement in Khashoggi's killing, calling it a “heinous crime that cannot be justified” at an investment conference in Riyadh last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Benjamin Harvey

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