Khashoggi: US asks Turkey for audio recording of murder

Is there such a thing: Khashoggi audio?

The United States today asked the Turkish government to provide audio recordings which Ankara said is evidence the journalist was killed.

Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi journalist entered the Saudi Arabian consulate office in Istanbul. He never came out, according to records.

But Turkish newspapers say he came out in body parts. They claim the Saudis killed him, butchered his body while he was still alive. Then the body parts were transported in a black Mercedes van to the house of the Consul.

From there, it was transported in a private jet to Saudi Arabia where obviously, the evidence would have gone missing. That is destroyed.

It sounds very plausible. But there is a lack of evidence. And when there is no ‘body’ to show, there is no crime.

However, Ankara, in its attacks against the Saudis, says it has audio recordings of the murder while it was taking place.

Turkish newspapers, fed by the Turkish intelligentsia, is publishing gory details of a murder well planned.

They talk of the cries of the man who is being cut into pieces by a specialist flown in from Saudi Arabia to do the dirty job.

Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, who has been identified as the head of forensic evidence in the Saudi general security department, was one of the 15-member squad who arrived in Ankara earlier that day on a private jet.

Tubaigy began to cut Khashoggi’s body up on a table in the study while he was still alive, the Turkish source said.

The killing took seven minutes, the source said.

As he started to dismember the body, Tubaigy put on earphones and listened to music. He advised other members of the squad to do the same, Turkish newspapers are saying.

However, Saudi newspapers are arguing that the Turks failed to publish the recordings. 

The Turks are saying Khashoggi installed a software in his Apple Watch that allowed him to record the conversation at the consulate.

Then came the gory moments. The killing, the cutting of the body parts.

But the Turks, to be on the safe side, are also saying most of the recordings were deleted by the Saudi death squad that attacked the journalist.