Turkish newspaper, Yeni Safak, revealed on Tuesday that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization has an 11-minute audio recording of the torture and murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul.
The newspaper emphasised that the 11-minute recording confirms the attack which Khashoggi was subjected to immediately after entering the consulate. Hence, the audio was shared with international parties to inform them of what happened.
While Al-Jazeera reported, on behalf of sources in the Turkish law enforcement, that elements of the Saudi intelligence “verbally abused and used profanity to address Khashoggi, in addition to torturing him during the first four minutes after he entered the Saudi consulate”.
The network stated that, after he sat in the consul’s office, several security elements joined Khashoggi and began talking to him using a harsh language. Afterward, the journalist was heard screaming and mentioning being attacked with needles. Then, his voice faded away.
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According to the recordings, the first group of Saudi intelligence elements tried to get rid of Khashoggi’s body, but the Turkish police do not know whether the attempt to dispose of the corpse took place inside the consulate or in the House of the Saudi Consul.
Earlier, The Washington Post reported that Turkish officials had informed their American counterparts that they had audio and video recordings showing Khashoggi’s death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
On Monday evening, the Turkish delegation, participating in the joint working group to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance, arrived at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The Turkish delegation was headed by the Attorney General in Istanbul and a number of experts from the Counter-Terrorism Bureau.
On Tuesday morning, the Turkish-Saudi joint working group completed a 9-hour inspection of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
As such, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he hopes to reach convincing results in Khashoggi’s case as soon as possible, adding that the inspection of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul will continue.
For its part, the Turkish police announced that they will search the Saudi consul’s house in Istanbul, as required by the ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.