Erdogan vows to reveal 'naked truth' as Turkey summons more witnesses in Khashoggi probe

Turkish prosecutors have summoned more witnesses to testify as part of the investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, local television reported on Sunday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to reveal the "naked truth” in the coming days.

Twenty-five more people will be quizzed as witnesses, the private NTV broadcaster said, without providing any further details.

On Friday, prosecutors questioned staff members of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul inside Istanbul's main courthouse, including the consulate driver, technicians and accountants.

Early on Saturday Saudi Arabia finally admitted that Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership and a Washington Post contributor, was killed inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

For more than two weeks they had insisted that he left the building alive.

Turkish police and prosecutors this week searched both the consulate and the consul's residence in Istanbul, as well as a large forest in the city, hunting for his body.

Turkish media outlets have reported that the authorities have audio tapes in which Khashoggi's alleged killers tortured him by cutting his fingers off before his decapitation.

Turkish officials have claimed they believe that 15 Saudi men who arrived in Istanbul on two flights on October 2 - the day when Khashoggi entered the consulate - were connected to his death.

Riyadh said it fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudis as a result of the initial investigation. 

"Why did those 15 men come here? Why were 18 people arrested?" Erdogan asked during a rally in Istanbul on Sunday, where he vowed to unveil the details of the murder.

”We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth," Erdogan added.

Despite international scepticism over Riyadh’s version of events, Erdogan and top government figures have remained cautious in their public statements, stopping short of pinning the blame on Saudi Arabia and referring instead to the prosecutors' investigation.

After the Saudi admission on Saturday, Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said Ankara was not putting the blame on anyone in advance.

But they would not accept any cover-up, he added. "Turkey will reveal whatever had happened. Nobody should ever doubt it," he said.