Turkey says Saudi explanation over Khashoggi murder 'insufficient'

Turkey on Thursday said the Saudi statement over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was "insufficient" and insisted that the killing was "premeditated."

"We find all those steps positive but insufficient," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at a conference held in the Mediterranean resort town of Alanya in southern Antalya province.

Riyadh's public prosecutor said five Saudi officials face the death penalty over the murder of Khashoggi who was drugged and dismembered inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate last month.

The foreign minister's remarks come shortly after Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor's office announced it had charged 11 out of 21 suspects in relation to the killing of Khashoggi.

Çavuşoğlu urged Saudi authorities to reveal the instructors behind the killing of Khashoggi in order to close the process of the Khashoggi case.

The foreign minister further asserted that the main question which remains unanswered is where the body of Khashoggi is, adding: "There is so far no answer on this matter".

He added that Turkey will continue to closely follow the issue.

At a press conference held in capital Riyadh, the chief prosecutor announced his intention to call for the death penalty against anyone found guilty of ordering and carrying out the journalist's murder.

The prosecutor's office also said it was awaiting Turkey's response to its request for evidence and sound recordings of the crime.

Khashoggi, a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, was killed on Oct. 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

After weeks of denying any involvement in the crime, Saudi Arabia later admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate but claimed the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of any plot to murder the journalist.