Trump and Erdogan ask the same question about Khashoggi's murder: "Where is the body?"

ISTANBUL – Twenty-four days after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, US and Turkish officials are still asking the same question: where is the body?

The remains of the Washington Post columnist are essential to endorse the shifting accounts of the Saudi government and determine an appropriate sanction for the oil-rich monarchy, key partner of the Trump government's Middle East policy.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped up pressure on the Saudi government on Friday in a speech calling for Khashoggi's body.

"It has been declared that he was killed, but where is the body?" Said Erdogan. "You have to show it."

For days, President Trump also questioned his aides on the body, but Washington still does not know where he is, according to US officials and diplomats familiar with the situation.

Saudi officials said earlier this week that Khashoggi's body had been rolled in a carpet and handed over to a "local collaborator", but the Turkish authorities said it had been dismembered at a terrible time. operation involving a bone saw and large suitcases.

"Finding the body, whatever its form, could give credence to Turkey's narrative," said Amanda Sloat, a specialist from Turkey at the Brookings Institution. "If the body appears as suggested by the leaks, it gives credence to the premeditated nature of this attack and has a bad image of the Saudi regime."

On Thursday, CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed Trump on her recent trip to Turkey, where she heard the so-called Khashoggi massacre. But even after the meeting, US officials said they needed more information before taking punitive action.

"We continue to seek all relevant facts in this case," said state department spokesman Robert Palladino. "As we know more, we will take additional action if the facts warrant it."

In her speech, Erdogan suggested to Turkey to have "additional information and documents" on the murder that she was eventually going to reveal, and reiterated her call to Saudi Arabia for that 39 she handed over the 18 people arrested in the case, if the authorities of the country could not they speak. Later in the day, the semi-official Anadolu news agency announced that Turkish prosecutors were about to "request" the extradition of these suspects.

"Give them back to us," said Erdogan. "The event was held in Istanbul. We will judge them. "

A senior Turkish official said that Turkey was requesting extradition because Khashoggi had been murdered by Saudis who had gone to Turkey and that it was "clear that the Turkish judicial system is better equipped to truly serve the cause of justice in this matter. "

Turkey and the United States urge Saudi Arabia to provide a credible explanation for a crime that has sparked global condemnation and has urged countries to reassess their links with Middle East power.

According to US and foreign officials, such an operation – involving a team of Saudi agents – would probably not have occurred without the knowledge of the kingdom's rulers, including the ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

After the killing of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate on October 2, Saudi Arabia gave new explanations for what had happened. Khashoggi escaped unharmed from inside the building and later claimed that his death was caused by fisticuffs. But on Thursday, the country apparently acknowledged for the first time that the operation was "premeditated". Erdogan did not mention Friday this development, but criticized the previous Saudi accounts, calling them "comical".

"These childish declarations do not coincide with the seriousness of the state," Erdogan said.

[CIA director listens to audio of journalist’s alleged murder]

For Erdogan, who has headed Turkey since 2003, the crime has helped push back Saudi Arabia, one of its regional rivals, and weaken the Crown Prince's credibility. Mohammed this week called the killing a "heinous crime". Mohammed and his father, King Salman, told President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who were traveling to Saudi Arabia last week, that they did not know that there would be had plot to kill. Khashoggi.

The Trump administration is nevertheless under pressure to take action against the kingdom, even though an alliance with the Saudis has been a pillar of its strategy in the Middle East to counter Iran. Trump called Khashoggi's murder "one of the worst cover-ups in the history of concealment."

In its statement on Thursday, Riyadh told Turkish officials that the suspects of Khashoggi's assassination had "committed their act with premeditated intent". The Saudi communiqué, attributed to his prosecutor, was important because he recalled Turkey's conclusion, but he did not say whether the Saudi investigators had come to the same conclusion by themselves.

Pompeo, in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, said: "Saudi prosecutors have made it clear that this was a premeditated murder and that we continue to learn the facts."

"The President has made it clear that we would hold those responsible to account, but that the United States had a significant and long-term strategic interest in our relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and that we would do both at the same time. time. – protect our interests and hold those responsible accountable, "said Pompeo.

Khashoggi was visiting the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents allowing him to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He was an insider of the royal court who became critical of the Saudi government. He was living in exile in Virginia, in part because of the country's reduced freedom of speech and repression of dissent.

Khashoggi and Cengiz had recently built an apartment in Istanbul. In an interview with Turkish TV channel Haberturk on Friday, Cengiz said Khashoggi had been treated well during a visit to the consulate on September 28.

He still had concerns, but "he thought Turkey was a safe country, and if he was detained or questioned, this issue would be resolved quickly," said Cengiz, according to a report from the US. interview translated by Reuters.

Salah Khashoggi, the eldest son of Jamal Khashoggi, arrived Thursday in the United States after the departure of Saudi Arabia, said a person close to the family. Salah is a US-Saudi dual citizen who was previously banned from leaving and was photographed earlier this week, meeting with Salman and Mohammed and receiving their condolences. The four children of Khashoggi are now in the United States.

Hudson reported from Washington. Josh Dawsey and Kareem Fahim contributed to this report.

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