Turkey precluded cover-up of Khashoggi murder: Justice minister
ANKARA
Turkey’s efforts to reveal the truth behind the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi avoided a cover-up of the incident by the kingdom, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül has said.
“Turkey has precluded the covering up of the murder. The murder was intended to be covered up and to be imputed to others. Turkey has upended all these intentions and revealed all the efforts,” Gül told reporters after his visit to Turkey’s Bars Association on Feb. 8.
U.N. special rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who recently visited Turkey with a team of experts on an international inquiry into Khashoggi’s murder, welcomed Turkey’s efforts, the minister said.
Turkey had made great efforts and showed major success by using both judicial and administrative capacity until the end in order to reveal the truth against the violation of a right to life and human rights, said the minister.
The fact that Saudi Arabia is closed to cooperation is of course prevented to illuminate all aspects of the incident, the minister said, expressing his will that this report would increase the awareness of the international public opinion and contribute to the emergence of the instigators.
The killing of Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate was “planned and perpetrated by Saudi officials,” the U.N. special rapporteur said on Feb. 7.
“Evidence collected during my mission to Turkey shows prime facie case that Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the State of Saudi Arabia,” Callamard was quoted as saying in a statement.
“Turkey’s efforts to apply prompt; effective and thorough; independent and impartial; and transparent investigations - in line with international law - had been seriously curtailed and undermined by Saudi Arabia,” she said.
“Woefully inadequate time and access was granted to Turkish investigators to conduct a professional and effective crime-scene examination and search required by international standards for investigation.”
She added that Khashoggi’s murder was the “gravest violation” of the most fundamental of all rights, the right to life.
The killing violated “both international law and core rules of international relations, including the requirements for lawful use of diplomatic missions,” according to the statement.
“Guarantees of immunity were never intended to facilitate the commission of a crime and exonerate its authors of their criminal responsibility or to conceal a violation of the right to life. The circumstances of the killing and the response by state representatives in its aftermath may be described as ‘immunity for impunity’,” Callamard said.