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.
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 Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, the number two man of the hit squad, 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.
The conversation follows:
Mutreb: Is it possible to put the body in a bag?
Al-Tubaigy: No. Too heavy, very tall too. 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).
Al-Tubaigy is also heard saying: “My superior at the Forensic Evidence does not know what I’m doing. There is no one to protect me,” in efforts to ask for protection in the vertical hierarchy going right up to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the responsibility of dismembering Khashoggi’s body.
The last 10 minutes leading up to Khashoggi’s death, the dialogue goes:
Mutreb: Leave a message for your son.
Khashoggi: What should I tell my son?
Mutreb: You will write a message, let’s rehearse; show it to us.
Khashoggi: What should I say, ‘see you soon’?
Unidentified hit squad member: Cut it short.
Mutreb: You will write something like ‘I’m in Istanbul. Don’t worry if you cannot reach me.’
Khashoggi: I shouldn’t say kidnapped.
Unidentified hit squad member: Take your jacket off.
Khashoggi: How can such a thing take place at a consulate? I’m not writing anything.
Unidentified hit squad member: Cut it short.
Khashoggi: I’m not writing anything.
Mutreb: Write it, Mr. 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.
Khashoggi: There is a towel here. Will you have me drugged?
Al-Tubaigy: We will put you to sleep.
After he was drugged, Khashoggi says “do not keep my mouth closed” before losing his consciousness.
“I have asthma. Do not do it, you will suffocate me.” These were Khashoggi’s last words.
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.
Via Al Sabah / Al Jazeera
