Turkey’s top diplomat, for the first time, described grisly details from audio tapes purportedly of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in Istanbul on Oct. 2, in an interview with a German newspaper.
A forensic doctor is “instructing the others – they should listen to music while he dismembers the body’’, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, tells Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an interview published on Tuesday.
“You can tell he is enjoying it,’’ Cavusoglu said, adding that “he likes to cut up people. It is disgusting.’’
Cavusoglu, for the first time, confirmed some of the content of the tapes, which have so far only been leaked by Turkish media.
He said he listened to the tapes of the killing in Saudi Arabia’s consulate on Oct. 2, but that the Turkish investigators would not divulge how they got the audio.
“He was killed within seven minutes. It was a premeditated murder,’’ Cavusoglu said.
On Nov. 15, Riyadh’s Chief Prosecutor said Khashoggi was killed by the head of a hit squad after having failed to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia.
“The crime included a fight and injecting the citizen (Khashoggi) with a drug overdose that led to his death,’’ the prosecution spokesman said.
“They did not decide to kill him after they could not persuade him to return,’’ Cavusoglu said.
Turkey has called for an international investigation into the murder of the journalist, which President Recep Erdogan has previously said came from “the highest levels of the Saudi government.’’
Khashoggi’s remains have not yet been located. (AFP)
