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.
Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, who was supposed to be the leader of the 15-man Saudi hit squad that killed Khashoggi, was in fact not number one but number two and the head of the negotiation group, according to reports.
The conversations recorded prior to and during the Oct. 2, 2018 murder of the dissident journalist at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate were obtained by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) right after the gruesome incident, and were shared with related Turkish authorities carrying out an investigation into the incident, as well as with international officials and institutions.
One of the recordings of the conversations between Mutreb and Dr Salah Muhammed Al-Tubaigy, the head of Forensic Evidence at the Saudi General Security Department who was in charge of dismembering Khashoggi’s body, are stamped 1:02 p.m., just 12 minutes before Khashoggi arrived at the consulate building to complete marriage procedures.
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.
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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],” Mutreb 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.
