Khashoggi was strangled upon entrance in Saudi consulate, body dismembered and disposed off in premeditated killing – Istanbul prosecutor

Jamal Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, then his body dismembered and disposed of in a premeditated killing, the city’s chief prosecutor has said in the first official confirmation of how the Saudi journalist died.

The statement further undermines Saudi claims he was killed after a fight broke out in the consulate, where he had arrived to collect documents for his upcoming wedding.

The Guardian reports that this story comes on the heels of the Saudi chief prosecutor’s departure from Istanbul and underlines how little co-operation there has been so far in what is supposedly a joint Turkish-Saudi investigation. The prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said in his statement that discussions this week with his Saudi counterpart, Saud al-Mojeb, had yielded “no concrete result”.

It also suggests that the steady drip of information about the crime leaked or released by Turkish officials so far will continue and there is more evidence to table.

This is a developing story