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A new book written by three Turkish reporters and drawing on audio recordings of the killing of a Saudi expatriate, Jamal Khashoggi, offers new details about an encounter that began with a demand that he return home and ended in murder and dismemberment, according to a report in The New York Times.
“First we will tell him ‘We are taking you to Riyadh,’” one member of a Saudi hit team told another, the book claims.
“If he doesn’t come, we will kill him here and get rid of the body.”
The new book offers the most comprehensive description to date of what is on those recordings. It sets the scene as a team of Saudi operatives lay their plans before Khashoggi arrives, and then recounts what happened next.
The three journalists, Abdurrahman Simsek, Nazif Karaman and Ferhat Unlu, work for an investigative unit at the pro-government newspaper Sabah.
The book, Diplomatic Atrocity: The Dark Secrets of the Jamal Khashoggi Murder, is written in Turkish and went on sale in December.
The reporters identify one of the officials on the tapes as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a security official and frequent companion of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Mutreb is heard giving orders and directing the conversation with Khashoggi.
It was Mutreb who laid out the plan to Salah al Tubaigy, a top forensic official of the Saudi government, telling him they would try to take Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. If Khashoggi resisted, “We will kill him here and get rid of the body,” Mutreb told Tubaigy.
“Jamal is tall, around 1.80 metres,” Tubaigy is quoted as saying. “The joints of a sacrificial animal are easily split, but dismembering still will take time.”
“I always worked on cadavers,” he said. “I know how to cut well. I have never worked on a warm body until now, but I can handle that easily. Normally while working on a cadaver, I put on my headphones and listen to music. And I drink my coffee and smoke my cigarette.”
“After I dismember, you will wrap them in plastic bags and put in the luggage and take the body parts out,” Tubaigy added.
Within minutes of entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Khashoggi was taken to the consul’s office. “Let go of my arm — what do you think you are doing?” he is heard saying.
“As soon as Khashoggi entered the room,” the reporters write, “Mutreb told him: ‘Come, sit down. We came to take you to Riyadh.’ Khashoggi’s answer was short and clear: ‘I won’t go to Riyadh.’”
The Saudi team wanted Khashoggi to send the following message to his son Salah: “My son, I am in Istanbul. Do not worry if you don’t hear from me for a while.” Khashoggi refused, and Mutreb ordered his men to set out the tools they had brought to dismember his body, the book says.
“Are you going to kill me? Are you going to strangle me?” Khashoggi is heard asking. Mutreb told him he would be “forgiven” if he cooperated, the reporters say. Mutreb then orders five Saudi agents to jump on Khashoggi.
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19/01/2019
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