Germany receives recordings on Khashoggi from Turkey

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN

German government has confirmed intelligence sharing between Turkey and Germany about the recordings of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Asked about recent media reports over the weekend, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman confirmed that they have received information from Turkey.

“I can tell you that there has been an exchange of intelligence service information on that,” Steffen Seibert told a regular news conference, but declined to give any further details.

On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara shared the recordings related to the murder of Khashoggi with Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and columnist for The Washington Post, was killed on Oct. 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

After weeks of denying involvement, the kingdom admitted that Khashoggi had been killed at the consulate but claimed that the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of a plot to murder him.

So far, 18 people, including security officers, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia in connection with the murder.