Official: Khashoggi Was Dissolved in Acid

A Turkish official says he believes Jamal Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid or other chemicals after it was mutilated, the AP reports. Yasin Aktay, a ruling party adviser to Erdogan, said Friday that "there can be no other formula" to explain why the Saudi journalist's remains have not been found a month after he was killed. Aktay, who was a friend of Khashoggi's, says he believes that the body was cut into pieces so that it could be dissolved in chemicals. "The reason they dismembered Khashoggi's body was to dissolve his remains more easily," says Aktay, per the BBC. "Now we see that they did not only dismember his body but also vaporised it." He adds that "all the findings point to his body parts being melted," but did not offer any proof for his comments.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the order to kill Khashoggi came from top Saudi officials and argues that the culprits still need to be found. In a Washington Post op-ed, Erdogan says he doesn't believe Saudi King Salman had ordered the Oct. 2 killing of Khashoggi—yet Turkey's close ties to Saudi Arabia did not mean that Turkey could turn a blind eye to the killing of the journalist. "We know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government," Erdogan says, adding: "As responsible members of the international community, we must reveal the identities of the puppet masters behind Khashoggi's killing and discover those in whom Saudi officials—still trying to cover up the murder—have placed their trust." (The Saudi crown prince apparently bad-mouthed Khashoggi in White House phone call.)