Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that he is following the case of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after he disappeared at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week.
“I am chasing. We will of course share the result with the world,” he said, according to CNN. “All the footage of entrance or exit of the embassy is under investigation.”
Erdogan told reporters that Turkish investigators are reviewing camera footage and airport records as they dig into Khashoggi’s disappearance, Reuters reports.
Two Turkish investigators told Reuters Saturday that they believe Khashoggi, who wrote a variety of columns criticizing the Saudi government, was murdered while in the consulate.
{mosads}”We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate,” one official added.
The Washington Post, to which Khashoggi has been a contributor, printed a blank column last Friday in support of the writer.
The Saudi government said it welcomed a probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance, inviting Turkish authorities to search their consulate in Istanbul.
“We are ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg on Friday.
“We will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do,” he added. “We have nothing to hide.”