Turkey shares recordings related to writer’s slaying

ANKARA, Turkey — The audio recording of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is so “atrocious” that a Saudi intelligence official who heard it speculated that “only someone who took heroin” could carry it out, Turkey’s president was quoted as saying Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists on board his plane while returning from

World War I commemorations in Paris, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that Turkey had shared audio recordings relating to the killing with Saudi Arabia and other nations, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Canada.

“The recording is truly atrocious. In fact, when the Saudi intelligence officer listened to the recording he was so shocked that he said ‘this one probably took heroin. Only someone who took heroin would do it,’” Erdogan was reported as saying in comments published in pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak.

Erdogan did not elaborate on how and when the Saudi official heard the recording of the killing of the Saudi citizen.

Turkey says Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post and often criticized the crown prince, was killed by a 15-member assassination squad sent from Riyadh.

Ankara insists the orders for the killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, but not King Salman.

Erdogan also said Turkey was “patiently” waiting for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to shed light on the killing at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month.

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Tuesday that people who have listened to the audio recording of the killing of Khashoggi do not think it implicates the Saudi crown prince in his death.

“That is not the conclusion that the people who have heard it have come to,” John Bolton told reporters at a summit in Singapore.