UPDATE - UK: Jeremy Hunt urges justice in Khashoggi case

UPDATES WITH MORE COMMENTS FROM FOREIGN SECRETARY

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Britain's foreign secretary said on Thursday that there must be confidence that the person who ordered the murder in Istanbul last fall of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi faces justice.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency at the Global Conference for Media Freedom conference organized by the U.K. and Canada in London, Jeremy Hunt said that “the murder was completely against our values as a country.”

“We raised it in the highest levels with the king and the crown prince and the foreign minister [of Saudi Arabia],” he said.

Hunt said “a process is going on in Saudi Arabia at the moment” and “people have been arrested in relation to this terrible murder.”

“We are waiting to see what happens but we made this very clear; we need to be confident that the person who ordered this terrible murder faces justice,” he explained.

Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives in October 2018 shortly after he entered Turkey’s Consulate in Istanbul to acquire a marriage certificate.

Riyadh offered conflicting narratives to explain Khashoggi's disappearance before acknowledging he was killed in the consulate, while trying to blame his death on a botched rendition by rogue agents.

Also speaking about media freedom, the British foreign secretary and the Tory leadership contender said the media is a “very important power in every country’s development.”

Describing the media as a really significant part of democratic development, Hunt said the U.K. and Canada would like to “fly the flag for that as an important principle.”