In October, the horrific killing of a Saudi journalist rattled the Middle East,... and really, the entire world.
The investigation continues in Istanbul, where the murder took place.
Cha Sang-mi spoke with an expert based in Turkey for his insights.
The international community has condemned the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had been sharply critical of Saudi Arabia's monarchy.
What we know so far -- on October second this year, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was supposed to get his divorce documents so he could marry his Turkish fiancee.
She waited outside for hours,... but he never came out.
After weeks of denials and shabby lies, Saudi Arabia admitted that the Washington Post columnist was killed inside the consulate by its agents.
It was also confirmed by the CIA that the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, sent at least 11 messages to his closest adviser, who was in charge of the agents who murdered Khashoggi, on the day of the incident.
An executive producer at Turkey's TRT News says that the investigation is not going moving quickly because of a complete lack of help from the Saudis.
"Well, so far... it's definitely been established that Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside the consulate. (cut) The investigations are still on and Turkey is trying to find as much as possible what exactly happened to the body as well. Maybe they have come to a conclusion and it's not public already. But, the fact is that Saudi Arabia has not been cooperating."
The western allies of the oil-rich kingdom, including the U.S., strongly condemned the killing -- President Trump in the beginning calling it the "worst cover-up in history", but over time, he began defending his ties to the kingdom -- a key American trading partner in the Middle East.
The importance of the event, experts say, is how a superpower is willing to overlook the crimes of its allies for its own benefit.
Cha Sang-mi, Arirang News.
