* Turkish newspaper publishes detailed transcript of Saudi
hit squad in the final moments of journalist’s
assassination.
The Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper has released transcripts of
audio recordings of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi hit
squad that killed him inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last
year.
The recordings, obtained by Turkey’s national intelligence and
made public by the newspaper on Monday, detailed the conversations
between the Saudi writer and members of the 15-man hit squad
moments before his assassination on October 2, 2018.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who was living in the
United States, had gone to his country’s consulate to collect
documents for his planned wedding before he was killed and his body
dismembered.
When he entered the consulate, Khashoggi was greeted by a
familiar face before being pulled by into a room, according to the
Daily Sabah.
“Please sit. We have to take you back [to Riyadh],” Maher
Abdulaziz Mutreb, a senior Saudi intelligence officer and the
bodyguard of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said.
“There is an order from Interpol. Interpol demanded you be
returned. We are here to take you,” Mutreb is quoted as saying.
Khashoggi responded: “There are no lawsuits against me. My
fiancee is waiting outside for me.”
In the last 10 minutes before he was killed, Mutreb asked
Khashoggi to “leave a message for your son”, saying not to worry if
he could not reach the journalist.
When Khashoggi refused, Mutreb said: “Write it, Mister Jamal.
Hurry up. Help us so we can help you, because in the end we will
take you back to Saudi Arabia and if you don’t help us you know
what will happen eventually.”
The operatives then drugged the Saudi journalist. His last words
before losing consciousness were: “I have asthma. Do not do it, you
will suffocate me.”
Sound of an autopsy saw dismembering the 59-year-old’s body can
be heard at 1.39pm local time. The procedure lasted 30 minutes.
His body is yet to be recovered.
Turkey has called Khashoggi’s killing “premeditated murder”
orchestrated by the Saudi government.
Saudi officials have countered that claim, insisting Khashoggi
was killed in a “rogue operation”, after initially claiming he had
left the building before vanishing.
‘I listen to music when I cut’
Saudi authorities have charged 11 unnamed suspects over Khashoggi’s
murder, including five who could face the death penalty on charges
of “ordering and committing the crime”.
The CIA has reportedly concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed
ordered the killing, which officials in Riyadh deny.
During trials in Riyadh on Sunday, Daily Sabah revealed some of
the statements of the hitmen who killed Khashoggi.
In the audio recorded minutes before Khashoggi entered the
consulate building, Mutreb asked whether it will “be possible to
put the trunk in a bag”.
In response, Salah Mohammed Abdah Tubaigy, a well-known Saudi
forensics doctor, replied: “No. Too heavy, very tall, too.”
He added: “Actually, I’ve always worked on cadavers. I know how
to cut very well. I have never worked on a warm body though, but
I’ll also manage that easily.
“I normally put on my earphones and listen to music when I cut
cadavers. In the meantime, I sip on my coffee and smoke. After I
dismember it, you will wrap the parts into plastic bags, put them
in suitcases and take them out [of the building].”
Khashoggi’s killing provoked widespread revulsion and marred the
image of the crown prince.
A report in the Washington Post in April said Saudi Arabia gave
Khashoggi’s four children “million-dollar houses” and “monthly
five-figure payments” as compensation for the killing of their
father.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
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