Saudi ‘kill squad’ had syringes
ISTANBUL: Luggage carried by a 15-member Saudi team dispatched to Istanbul included scissors, defibrillators and syringes that may have been used against journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi consulate, a progovernment Turkish daily said yesterday.
X-ray images of the luggage were published in the Sabah newspaper as The New York Times reported that a member of the team at the consulate had told a superior by phone to “tell your boss”, suspected to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the operation was accomplished.
Turkish media has published gruesome details of the murder of 59-year-old Khashoggi who according to a Turkish prosecutor was strangled and dismembered soon after he entered the Istanbul consulate on Oct 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.
After repeated denials, Saudi Arabia finally admitted Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Riyadh critic, had been murdered at the mission in a “rogue” operation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the 15-member Saudi team travelled from Riyadh to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi.
The luggage carried by the team was
loaded into two planes that left for Riyadh on Oct 2, Sabah said.
The luggage contained 10 phones, five walkie-talkies, intercoms, two syringes, two defibrillators, a jamming device, staplers, and scissors, the paper reported.
The team was being led by Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, the man named by Turkish media as the head of the operation against Khashoggi.
The New York Times, quoting sources familiar with a recording of Khashoggi’s killing, reported on Monday that Mr Mutreb, a security officer who frequently travelled with Prince Mohammed, picked up a phone at the consulate to say “tell your
boss” that the operation was accomplished.
Turkish intelligence officers have told US officials they believe Mr Mutreb was speaking to one of the prince’s aides, it reported. American intelligence officials believe “your boss” was a reference to Prince Mohammed.
Mr Erdogan has said the order to murder Khashoggi came from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government and he pointedly failed to absolve Crown Prince Salman of responsibility.
Ankara has shared voice recordings linked to the murder with countries including Saudi Arabia, the United States, and its Western allies.