A UN human rights rapporteur has arrived in Ankara for a week-long visit to lead an international inquiry into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has confirmed.
Agnes Callamard, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, was received on Monday by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the ministry said, without elaborating on the details.
The UN visit comes nearly four months after Khashoggi was murdered inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul.
Callamard, leading a team of legal and forensic experts, has also made a request to visit the consulate in Istanbul and also to visit the kingdom, the UN human rights branch told dpa in an emailed note on Monday.
"I have requested access to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and a meeting with the ambassador of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Turkey," Callamard was quoted as saying.
"I have also sought permission to conduct a similar country visit to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
It was not immediately clear if her request was confirmed or when she would have access to the consulate.
Saudi Arabia insists that the death of Khashoggi, a Saudi national and vocal critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was a "rogue operation" and has put 11 defendants on trial for the crime.
However Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government.
The UN team will now assess steps taken by the Turkish and Saudi governments to address the case, Calamard said in a statement on the UN's human rights branch website last week.
The UN experts will also assess the "nature and extent of states' and individuals' responsibilities for the killing," the statement read.
