Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara is dissatisfied with Riyadh’s explanations in connection with the murderer of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“We regard it as a despicable murder. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia does not support us. At first, there was a lie that he [Khashoggi] left the consulate. [However] there is evidence that he was killed: there is a seven-minute audio recording, we shared it with the world. Turkey handed it to the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom — all those who wanted. We cannot be satisfied with the explanations we have got,” Erdogan told reporters on Saturday, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, as aired by the NTV broadcaster

Turkey insists that Saudi Arabia should extradite those responsible for the murder, Erdogan reiterated.

“But this is not only the case of Turkey, but of the whole world. We still haven’t received any information from the Saudi side about the assassins’ accomplices. They must reveal it,” he stressed.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist known for his criticism of Saudi policies, disappeared on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia’s acknowledgement that the journalist had been killed in a fight inside the consulate came after two weeks of denials and growing pressure from Western allies to provide explanations.

On October 26, the Saudi prosecutor general acknowledged that the journalist’s murder was premeditated. However, Riyadh maintains that the killing had nothing to do with the Saudi Royal family, describing it as a “rogue” operation.

Source: Agencies