Turkey demands an explanation from Saudi Arabia after Saudi police detained a Turkish journalist for alleged comments about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, said a Turkish diplomatic source quoted by Reuters.
Kurtulush Demirbaş was arrested last week in the Saudi city of Taif, where he was covering the Turkish under-19 soccer team, for allegedly speaking about Khashoggi's assassination, the private news agency Anka reported. and other Turkish media. It is not clear what exactly Demirbash said about Khashoggi's murder, or how and where he did it.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry was informed of the incident on Monday and immediately requested information from Saudi authorities, adding that Ankara is closely monitoring the case and regularly informs Demirbaş's family.
On Wednesday night, the same diplomatic source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the Turkish consul general in Riyadh would visit Demirbaş at the place where he is being held, but gave no further details.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the case.
The assassination of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 significantly soured relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, with Ankara then accusing high-ranking Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, of orchestrating the assassination. However, relations between the two countries improved after 2021 after Turkey dropped accusations of Saudi involvement in the assassination as part of a diplomatic campaign to mend ties with its adversaries, including Riyadh.
US intelligence concluded in 2021 that the Crown Prince approved the operation to capture and kill Khashoggi, who worked for the US newspaper Washington Post. The Saudi government has denied any involvement by the crown prince and claims Khashoggi's assassination was a brutal crime committed by a group of criminals.