Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for an international investigation into the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
"An international investigation is absolutely essential. We will do whatever it takes to bring the murder to light," Anadolu agency cited the minister as saying.
Other Turkish officials said separately that the government was weighing requests for an investigation by the human rights commission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as for an independent inquiry under the secretary general of the United Nations.
Khashoggi, a Virginia resident who wrote columns for The Washington Post, was killed on October 2 by a team of Saudi agents inside the consulate in Istanbul.
Turkish officials have shared an audio recording of the killing with American and other Western intelligence agencies. The Turks have said that evidence shows the team of agents moved quickly and methodically to kill Khashoggi and then dismember his body in a premeditated assassination ordered from Riyadh, the New York Times reported.
Many current and former Western government officials have said they are convinced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old de facto ruler of the kingdom, authorized the killing of Khashoggi. Saudi officials have said the crown prince had no involvement in or knowledge of the operation.
