No audio or video evidence of Khashoggi murder in Erdogan speech

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was unexpectedly reticent in his speech to parliament on Tuesday although he had promised major intelligence revelations in support of the case against Saudi Arabia for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, after days of incriminating Turkish leaks. Erdogan confirmed that the 18 Saudi officials arrested in Riyadh were the same suspects fingered by Turkish investigators. He said the Saudi journalist had been cruelly murdered. He went on to say that three Saudi officials took charge of disposing Khashoggi’s remains after the crime, an insinuation that the Saudis knew where the body was. Erdogan believed that King Salman was sincere in his denial of prior knowledge of the crime – while not mentioning the crown prince – and called for an independent investigation of the affair. “This was a political killing,” he said.  By holding back the audio of video evidence Turkish investigators claim to possess of what exactly happened inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after Khashoggi entered the building on Oct. 2, Erdogan withheld support of the allegations Turkish sources had disseminated to the world media. His speech failed to resolve all the questions still hanging over the affair.