AKP member: Turkey will not allow cover-up

President Erdogan to speak about case on Tuesday

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey will not allow a cover-up after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a senior member of President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party said on Sunday, warning that consequences could be “dire.”

“If the incident transpired as it has been told across the world, there is no way Saudi officials can cover this up by saying a team from Saudi Arabia came and two or three men among them murdered him,” Numan Kurtulmus, deputy chairman of the AKP told CNN Turk in an interview.

“A crime committed in a consulate cannot be carried out without the knowledge of the senior state officials of that country,” Kurtulmus said. “If this crime was really carried out as has been said, if the evidence really leads to that conclusion, the situation will be dire and this must have very serious legal consequences.”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he would make all necessary statements about the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a meeting with members of his ruling AK Party in parliament on Tuesday.

“I will make my statement about this issue on Tuesday at the party group meeting,” Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul on Sunday.

Erdogan has remained largely silent on the case, although Turkey’s pro-government newspapers have released information detailing a 15-member team that purportedly arrived in Istanbul to confront Khashoggi at the consulate.

“Why 15 people came... why 18 people were detained... These things have to be told in detail,” Erdogan said.

Reflecting the intensifying international skepticism over its account, a senior Saudi government official has laid out a new version that in key respects contradicts previous explanations.