Erdogan: Turkey Shared Khashoggi Tapes with Saudi, US, Others
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Turkey has given recordings on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France and Britain, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.
Turkish sources have said previously that authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting the murder.
Speaking before his departure for France to attend commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, Erdogan said Saudi Arabia knows the killer of Jamal Khashoggi is among a group of 15 people who arrived in Turkey one day ahead of the October 2 killing.
Erdogan said he might meet with US President Donald Trump in Paris during the commemorations. "When we go to Paris, we will try to secure an opportunity and we will realize a bilateral meeting," Erdogan said.
Sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Turkish police ended the search for Khashoggi's body, but that the criminal investigation into the Saudi journalist's murder will continue.
Al Jazeera has learned on Friday that traces of acid were found at the Saudi consul general's residence in Istanbul, where the body was believed to be disposed of with the use of chemicals.
The residence is at walking distance from the Saudi consulate, where Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed by a team of Saudi officers and officials.
Saudi Arabia initially attempted to cover up the killing by insisting that Khashoggi had left the consulate. It then changed its narrative, saying the journalist died in a fistfight. Later, Saudi Arabia admitted Khashoggi was killed in a premeditated murder, but that to killing was an unplanned "rogue operation".
Turkish and Saudi officials have carried out joint inspections of the consulate and the consul's residence, but Erdogan said some Saudi officials were still trying to cover up the crime.
Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Istanbul, said that Saudi officials, despite officially claiming that they would cooperate with their Turkish counterparts, so far have not only refused to do that but possibly tried to tamper with the ongoing investigation.
"They namely did this by sending in chemical experts [in the consulate and consul-general's home] to destroy evidence," he said.
"They also denied Turkish requests to once again search the consul-general's home, after Turks found samples of chemicals in the garden of the residence."
Istanbul's chief prosecutor said on October 31 that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and that his body was dismembered, in the first official comments on the case.
Saudi Arabia has said it arrested 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of an investigation into Khashoggi's killing. Ankara also seeks extradition of the suspects.