Khashoggi’s body may have been hidden inside luggage

THE killers of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident journalist murdered in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate, may have used diplomatic immunity to smuggle his body out of Turkey in their luggage, says the Turkish defence minister.

The body has still not been found more than six weeks after Mr Khashoggi’s death, triggering international condemnation of the kingdom. Donald Trump, the US president, has declined to publicly support the CIA’S conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, ordered the murder but says he expects a full report today or tomorrow.

Riyadh has offered several explanations for what happened but insists the Crown Prince was not involved. At the weekend, Hulusi Akar, the Turkish defence minister, reportedly said the journalist’s killers may have taken his body parts out of the country.

“One probability is that they left three to four hours after committing the murder. They may have taken out Mr Khashoggi’s dismembered corpse inside luggage without facing problems, due to their diplomatic immunity,” Mr Akar told the broadcaster CNN Turk. Turkey alleges a 15-man team was involved in the killing.

Last week, a Saudi prosecutor said the body was dismembered, removed from the building and handed to an unidentified local accomplice.

On Friday, US news organisations reported that the CIA had concluded that responsibility stretched to the very top of the country’s ruling family. But Mr Trump, under pressure to distance the US from its close ally, said the conclusion was premature, a position backed by the State Department, which added that the US had not yet reached a final conclusion about the killing.

Mr Trump said yesterday that he had been made aware of an audio recording of Mr Khashoggi’s murder but did not want to hear it.

“It’s a suffering tape. It’s a terrible tape,” he said in a pre-recorded interview with Fox News. “It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”

‘It’s a suffering tape. It’s a terrible tape. It was very violent, very vicious and terrible’