Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, with his body dismembered and disposed of in a pre-meditated killing, the city’s chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said.
A statement from Fidan’s office also said on Wednesday that discussions with Saudi chief prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb have yielded no “concrete results” despite “good-willed efforts” by Turkey to uncover the truth.
The statement is the first public confirmation by a Turkish official that Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered after he entered the Saudi Consulate on 2 October to collect paperwork needed to marry his Turkish fiancee.
Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 Saudi suspects detained in Saudi Arabia over the killing.
It is also pressing Saudi Arabia for information concerning Khashoggi’s remains, which still haven’t been found, as well as who ordered the journalist’s slaying.
Saudi officials have said the kingdom will try the 18 and bring them to justice after the investigation is complete.
Khashoggi was a well-known critic of the Saudi government and had work published in publications such as the Washington Post.
He went into self-imposed exile in the United States last year.
His disappearance, and then presumed death, sparked international condemnation and a diplomatic crises, as two of the Middle East’s great power centres, Turkey’s Ankara and Saudi’s Riyadh, appeared on collision course.