On Friday, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International condemned Ankara’s intention to transfer to Saudi Arabia the case file of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in Turkey in 2018.
“Today is a dark day for those who spent more than three years fighting for justice for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. By taking the case… Turkey will knowingly and voluntarily send him into the hands of those responsible” for his killing, Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced Friday that he would give a positive opinion on the transfer of the file to Saudi Arabia after the Istanbul prosecutor asked to “close the file” of the case of Khashoggi, who was killed in his country’s consulate in Turkey in 2018.
According to the private DHA news agency, the public prosecutor said that “the case is at a standstill because the court’s orders cannot be implemented, because the accused are foreigners.”
The organization said that “Saudi Arabia has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the Turkish prosecutor, and it is clear that a Saudi court cannot deliver justice.”
The killing of Khashoggi, who was dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, strained relations between the two countries. However, for months, Ankara, facing great economic difficulties, has been seeking closer ties with Riyadh.
The murder of Khashoggi sparked international outrage that is still interacting, and Western intelligence agencies have accused the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler in the kingdom, of “issuing the order to liquidate him.”
After initially denying that the assassination had taken place, Riyadh returned and admitted that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents who acted on their own.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had considered at the time that the order for the assassination came from “the highest levels of the Saudi government,” but he did not name Mohammed bin Salman.
Erdogan said in January he planned to visit Riyadh, a visit that comes at a critical moment for Turkey, where inflation has soared to more than 50 percent.
And Turkey, which is experiencing a new economic crisis and is looking for foreign investments and trade, has reached out to regional competitors, including Saudi Arabia.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a television interview Thursday that some “concrete steps” would be taken to normalize relations.