Saudi gov't was directly involved in killing of journalist - Turkey

The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has, for the first time, accused the Saudi Arabian Government directly of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"We know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government," Erdogan wrote in an article published by the Washington Post, a United States-based newspaper.

Charging that the killing involved a "lot more than a group of security officials", President Erdogan called for "the puppet masters behind Khashoggi's killing" to be exposed

However, the Turkish leader says he does not believe that King Salman was involved.

Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul on October 2.

According to Turkish investigators, the journalist, who was living in exile in the US, was strangled shortly after he entered the consulate to collect documents for his wedding to a Turkish citizen.

His body has not been found and an aide to President Erdogan says said he believes it was dissolved in acid after being cut up.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have since arrested 18 suspects who, they say, will be prosecuted there.

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