Prosecutor: Khashoggi strangled, dismembered

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as part of a premeditated killing, and his body was dismembered before it was removed, according a top Turkish prosecutor.

Chief Istanbul prosecutor Irfan Fidan’s office also said in a statement that discussions with Saudi chief prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb over the killing yielded “no concrete result” despite Turkey’s “good-intentioned efforts to reveal the truth”.

The statement was the first public confirmation by a Turkish official that Khashoggi was strangled and mutilated after he entered the Saudi Consulate on October 2. It also pointed to a lack of co-operation from Saudi officials in the investigation of the slaying.

The prosecutor’s statement that Khashoggi was killed immediately conflicts with a report by progovernment newspaper last month, which cited what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi being tortured before being killed. The newspaper claimed that his fingers were cut off and that he was killed by being beheaded.

Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 suspects in the journalist’s slaying who were detained in Saudi Arabia. It also is pressing Saudi Arabia for information about who ordered Khashoggi’s killing and the location of his remains. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Riyadh to disclose the identity of an alleged local collaborator said to have been involved in getting rid of Khashoggi’s body.

Saudi chief prosecutor al-Mojeb met with Fidan twice and also visited the Turkish intelligence agency’s Istanbul headquarters this week before leaving for Riyadh on a private jet yesterday.

Saudi Arabia has not commented directly on the prosecutor’s visit and al-Mojeb did not respond to journalists’ questions at the airport as he departed.