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Turkey’s Erdogan says awaiting probe results over missing Saudi journalist
ANKARA, Oct 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Sunday said he was awaiting the results of an investigation into the
disappearance of a Saudi journalist, after a government source said officials
believed he had been killed inside Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate.
“I am following the (issue) and we will inform the world whatever the
outcome” of the official probe, Erdogan said, following the disappearance of
Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Riyadh and a Washington Post contributor, who
has not been since since he visited the consulate on Tuesday.
“God willing we will not be faced with a situation we do not want,” the
president told reporters in Ankara, adding: “I still am hopeful.”
The Turkish head of state added that he hoped to have the results “very
quickly” over the incident involving a “journalist I knew for a long time”
and “friend”.
“It is very, very upsetting for us that it happened in our country,” he
lamented.
Erdogan said that CCTV footage of entrances and exits at the consulate and
the airport in Istanbul were being studied by the police.
Khashoggi had gone to the consulate to obtain official documents in order
to be able to marry his Turkish fiancee.
Late on Saturday, a government source told AFP that the police believed
the journalist was killed by a team that was especially sent to Istanbul and
who left the same day.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed official at the
Istanbul consulate denying the reports that Khashoggi had been killed, saying
the claims were “baseless”.
BSS/AFP/ARS/2008 hrs