Turkey is cranking up pressure on Saudi Arabia over the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, leaking a fresh batch of incriminating information that clearly indicates that it was premeditated. It comes a day before Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to reveal what happened “in all its nakedness,” as he put it when he addresses the parliamentary group of his ruling Justice and Development Party.
It remains unclear whether Erdogan shared any of the details with US President Donald Trump in a phone call Sunday. It was the first such conversation between the pair since North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson was freed from house arrest in the Aegean city of Izmir and allowed to fly back home on Oct. 12. The Turkish presidency said in a statement the leaders had agreed that the Khashoggi case needed to be illuminated in every way.
Today’s leaks included surveillance footage shared by Turkish officials with CNN that showed a man dressed in Khashoggi’s clothes and wearing his glasses and a fake beard leaving the consulate where Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2 by the back door. The individual, who matched Khashoggi in height and girth, was later captured on tape milling around the Blue Mosque in the crowded touristic Sultanahmet district. Soon thereafter he appears beardless and wearing his own clothes. The man, identified as Mustafa al-Madani, was allegedly part of the 15-member hit squad implicated in Khashoggi’s death.
Separately, the pro-government A Haber broadcast footage of alleged Saudi consulate officials burning documents a day after Khashoggi disappeared.
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