Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who is visiting Turkey to investigate the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on Tuesday was denied entry to the Saudi Consulate General in İstanbul.
“We just wanted to [get an] over-sense of it, and we are respectfully calling on the authorities to give us access,” Callamard said.
“The request to the Saudi consulate came quite late, so we need to give them a bit more time to process our request,” she added.
“I have requested access to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and a meeting with the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saud Arabia in Turkey,” Callamard said earlier in an email to the Reuters news agency.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who wrote critically about the Saudi crown prince, was killed inside the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul on Oct. 2. His remains still have not been found.
Turkish officials have called for an international investigation and complained of a lack of cooperation by Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has indicted 11 people in the killing and is seeking the death penalty for five of them. (SCF, Turkishminute.com)