Khashoggi kill order came from 'highest levels' of Saudi govt: Erdogan

Erdogan adds that he did not believe for a second that Saudi's King Salman had ordered the hit on Khashoggi

WASINGTON: The order to murder Saudi journalist and regime critic Jamal Khashoggi came from "the highest levels" of the Riyadh government, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday in a Washington Post op-ed.

"We know that the perpetrators are among the 18 suspects detained in Saudi Arabia. We also know that those individuals came to carry out their orders: Kill Khashoggi and leave," he wrote.

"Finally, we know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government."



Erdogan added that he did "not believe for a second" that Saudi's King Salman had ordered the hit on Khashoggi, who was murdered at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and then “cut into pieces”, Turkey’s chief prosecutor said Wednesday, making details of the murder public for the first time.



A statement from the office of prosecutor Irfan Fidan said meetings with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, who visited Istanbul this week, had produced “no concrete results” on the killing, which it said was premeditated.



Khashoggi, a 59-year-old Washington Post contributor, was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork ahead of his upcoming wedding. His body has not been found.