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TEHRAN, October 24 -An adviser to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has “blood on his hands” in the murder case of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -“It is a disgrace that reaches all the way to Crown Prince [Mohammed bin] Salman. At least five members of the execution team are [Mohammed bin] Salman’s right hands and are people that wouldn’t act without his knowledge,” Ilnur Cevik, an adviser to President Erdogan, wrote in a column in the Yeni Birlik newspaper, according to Reuters.
“Even if US President Trump saves [Mohammed bin] Salman, in the eyes of the world, he is a questionable person with Khashoggi’s blood on his hands,” Cevik wrote.
US resident Khashoggi was an outspoken critic of Riyadh, especially Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who contributed to The Washington Post.
He was visiting the consulate to obtain documents for his marriage, but he never left the mission.
Saudi officials originally insisted that Khashoggi had left the diplomatic mission after his paperwork was finished, but they finally admitted 17 days later that he had in fact been killed inside the building during "an altercation."
‘Turkey shares evidence with CIA chief’
Turkey has reportedly shared “all the evidence” it has gathered in its investigation of Khashoggi’s murder in Istanbul with the visiting CIA chief.
Turkish media reported Wednesday that the US Central Intelligence Agency boss Gina Haspel had been trusted with the evidence during a briefing at the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT) a day earlier.
That included footage, audio tapes, and other evidence collected from the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, where Jamal Khashoggi was killed on October 2, as well as the consul’s residence.
The reason for Haspel's visit to Turkey was not immediately clear. The media only reported that she was in the country for talks with Turkish officials.
Also on Wednesday, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not allow those responsible for the killing to avoid justice, echoing his previous remarks on the case.
“We are determined not to allow a cover-up of this murder and to make sure all those responsible -- from those who ordered it to those who carried it out -- will not be allowed to avoid justice,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.
“We will continue to share new evidence transparently with our counterparts to enlighten the dark sides of this murder,” he added.
Will Saudis pay in Khashoggi case?
In an interview with Press TV, Mark Sleboda, international relations and security analyst, downplayed the prospect of Saudi Arabia being held to account in the case, “The US, the West, they depend too much on Saudi Arabia for regional hegemony of the Middle East and control of the energy flows through that area.”
“Trump immediately said we can’t stop arms sales, US sales hundreds of billions of dollars of its advanced arms to Saudi Arabia and Trump said we can’t stop that because that will cost American jobs,” he said.
“So I don’t think in the long-run anything significant will be done to Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Michael Lane, president of the American Institute for Foreign Policy, however, told Press TV that the murder case “may change or alter the course of the war,” referring to the 2015-present Saudi-led war on Yemen.
“The mess that the Saudis have created as the result of Khashoggi’s incident is bringing just tremendous scrutiny, tremendous sunshine, and a lot of international pressure on the Saudi regime,” he added.
Source: Press TV
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