Khashoggi's murder was 'violently planned,' top Turkish official says

The killing of Jamal Khashoggi was "a violently planned" murder that was subsequently covered up, the spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party said Monday. Omer Celik, spokesman for the AK party, told reporters at the party's headquarters in Ankara that the perpetrators should be brought to justice, according to Turkey's state news agency Anadolu.
Celik spoke a few hours after CNN published surveillance footage that showed what a Turkish source described as a "body double" leaving the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on the day Khashoggi died. The Saudi operative, said by the Turkish source to be one of a 15-man team sent from Saudi Arabia to kill Khashoggi, was wearing the journalist's clothes and was picked up on surveillance footage at locations around Istanbul.
"Jamal Khashoggi's killing is a violently planned and a very complicated murder, which was being covered up," Celik said. "I hope those responsible for Khashoggi's killing are punished and no one ever thinks of repeating this."
Erdogan will make an announcement on the murder case of Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday and "nothing about this event will remain hidden," his spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, told reporters Monday.
"The line our President put since the beginning of this case is very clear," Kalin said. "The investigation will continue until the end."
Surveillance footage shows Jamal Khashoggi (left) as he enters the Saudi consulate. A senior Turkish official told CNN the man on the right, Mustafa Al-Madani, dressed up in Khashoggi's clothes after his death.
Meanwhile, CIA Director Gina Haspel is traveling to Turkey to address the investigation into Khashoggi's death, according to a source familiar with her plans.
Reuters was first to report on Haspel's trip. The CIA did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US resident, was last seen on October 2, when he walked into the Saudi consulate to obtain paperwork to marry his fiancee Hatice Cengiz.
After weeks of denying any knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts, the Saudi government admitted on Friday that he had died in the diplomatic compound. The official line is that he was accidentally killed when a discussion with officials turned into a brawl.
Since then, the Saudi narrative has continued to evolve. A Saudi source close to the royal palace later told CNN that Khashoggi had died in a chokehold. On Sunday, its foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, described his death a "murder" and a "tremendous mistake." Saudi Arabia does not know where Khashoggi's body is, he told Fox News.
"The individuals who did this did this outside the scope of their authority," he said. "There obviously was a tremendous mistake made, and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up. That is unacceptable in any government."
On Monday, a Saudi source would not confirm or deny that the operative was sent to act as a body double, but continued to maintain that the killing of Khashoggi was not intentional.
Turkish police also confirmed to CNN that an abandoned car at a parking lot in Istanbul's Sultangazi district is part of its investigation into Khashoggi's death.
An officer said while officers have examined the area around the car, a forensics team will return on Tuesday morning to search inside.
Source: CNN