Un Khashoggi Investigator Meets Istanbul Prosecutor

A UN official visiting Turkey to investigate last year’s killing of a Saudi journalist met with Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor Irfan Fidan on Tuesday.

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who is leading a team of experts in an international inquiry into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, met with Fidan at an Istanbul Courthouse.

Also on Tuesday, Callamard said that Saudi Arabia had not yet approved a request for her to enter the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul and meet Saudi authorities.

Callamard briefly visited the Istanbul neighbourhood where the Saudi consulate is located but did not enter the premises.

“We just wanted to have a sense of it,” she told reporters.

Turkey’s presidential communications director also welcomed Callamard’s visit to Turkey.

‘We need to give them a bit more time’

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist living in the United States, was killed on October 2 at the Saudi consulate, where he had gone to collect documents for his planned wedding.

Speaking outside the building, Callamard said she had requested access to the premises from the Saudi government and to meet Saudi authorities both in Turkey and in the kingdom.

“To be fair the request to them has come quite late, so we need to give them a bit more time to process our request,” she said. “We are respectfully calling on the authorities to give us access at some stage while we are here.”

“It’s a scandal,” the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesman Omer Celik said after the incident. “An international investigation should be launched,” he added.

TRT World’s Melinda Nucifora has more from Istanbul.

CIA urged to share recordings

US intelligence agencies believe Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered an operation to kill Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom’s de facto ruler, and say his body was dismembered and removed to a location still publicly unknown.

Riyadh denies that the prince had any involvement.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said on Monday that Callamard is investigating what evidence there is pointing to Prince Mohammed’s responsibility. He also called for the Central Intelligence Agency to share its intercepted recordings of the crime.

Callamard met Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) separately on Monday. Turkish officials have not said what evidence they shared with her.

She is expected to meet Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, who has headed the local investigation, later on Tuesday.

She said she could publish her report by late May although the date could change.