(Bloomberg) -- An international investigation must be launched into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Turkey initially didn't want to resort to an international court and opted to work with Saudi Arabia, but now thinks “an international investigation is a must,” Cavusoglu said at a meeting in parliament late Wednesday. He spoke several weeks after Turkey deemed that a visiting Saudi prosecutor on the case was uncooperative.
Saudi Prosecutor on Khashoggi Uncooperative, Turk Officials Say
The crime cannot be covered up and a deal can't be made, the Turkish foreign minister said. “Turkey is not bluffing,” Cavusoglu said. “We have to share what we have with the international community.”
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said earlier this week that people who've heard a recording of Khashoggi's Oct. 2 murder inside the Kingdom's consulate in Istanbul don't believe it implicates Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Omer Celik, the spokesman of Turkey's ruling AK Party, called Bolton's claim “extremely wrong.”
“This murder could not have happened without a high-level order,” he said.
Khashoggi Tape Doesn't Implicate Saudi Prince, Says Bolton
Khashoggi, a former palace insider who turned critic, was strangled and his body dismembered, Istanbul's chief prosecutor has said. Turkey has stopped just short of blaming Prince Mohammed, who has denied any involvement in Khashoggi's murder.
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, Amy Teibel, Taylan Bilgic
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