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Turkey tightens Khashoggi noose as Saudis flail

Footage of another man leaving the Saudi Consulate in the missing journalist's clothes and of officials burning documents leave no doubt that his murder was pre-planned, if clumsily executed.
Turkish police officers stand guard outside a car park where a vehicle belonging to Saudi Arabia's consulate was found, in Istanbul, Turkey October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir - RC1D28F3BA50

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.

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