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Saudi Consulate in İstanbul denies entry to UN expert probing Khashoggi killing

PHOTO: Hürriyet Daily News

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, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

“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.

“It’s a scandal,” ruling Justice and Development Party spokesman Ömer Çelik said after the incident, according to the Hürriyet daily.

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.

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