SYDNEY, Australia — The Turkish government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video recordings that prove columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul this month, The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified U.S. and Turkish officials.
Recordings show a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi — a contributor to the Post — in the consulate before killing him and dismembering his body, the Post reported. The well-known former Saudi insider had walked into the consulate on Oct. 2 to obtain an official document before his upcoming wedding and hasn’t been seen since.
Turkish officials have said he was killed inside the consulate, a claim the Saudi government has vehemently denied.
“You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic,” the Post quoted one person with knowledge of the recording, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as saying. “You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured and then murdered.”
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is forcing the Trump administration to investigate the disappearance of the journalist, triggering a human rights probe that could result in sanctions against Saudi officials and entities.
Trump has said Khashoggi’s disappearance was “a terrible thing and it certainly would not be a positive” for U.S.-Saudi relations, but added that he didn’t want to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
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