'You traitor': Turkey paper reveals new Khashoggi murder audio details

'You traitor': Turkey paper reveals new Khashoggi murder audio details
A Turkish newspaper has revealed new details surrounding the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last month.
3 min read
19 November, 2018
Khashoggi was critical of the Saudi crown prince [Getty]

A Turkish newspaper has revealed new details of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last month, with more harrowing quotes from audio recordings of the day.

Citing accounts of Turkish and US officials, pro-government Haberturk said in a report on Monday that there are two audio recordings of the murder lasting for approximately 11 minutes.

According to the report, the unreleased audio - which Turkey has shared with intelligence officials in the West - indicates that Khashoggi was accosted by four members of a Saudi hit squad shortly after he entered the diplomatic mission.

"Let my hand go. Who do you think you are? Why are you doing this?" the reports quotes Khashoggi as saying, as the agents pulled him into a room of the consulate.

"You traitor! Your day of judgment has come!" Maher Mutreb - the alleged coordinator of the mission - is purportedly quoted as saying to Khashoggi before the journalist is tortured and eventually murdered.

The report said that eight voices can be heard in the recordings, which cut off for 50 minutes after the murder when it is thought the team used jammers to hamper devices spying on the consul.

The report adds that a later recording captures the team's alleged Khashoggi body double Mustafa al-Madani saying: "It's really creepy that I am wearing the clothes of someone who was killed minutes ago."

He is also reportedly heard saying that Khashoggi's shoes are too tight for his feet.

Madani left the consulate by the back exit wearing what appeared to be Khashoggi's clothes - although the shoes did not match those the journalist appeared to be wearing in CCTV footage of him entering the consulate.

The report comes a day after US President Donald Trump said he has been fully briefed on the audio recording but does not want to listen to it himself.

"It was very violent, very vicious and terrible," Trump said.

Khashoggi, who was critical of the Saudi crown prince, was killed after going to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve documents necessary to marry his Turkish fiancee.

According to Turkish officials, the audio shows that Khashoggi was strangled to death and dismembered soon after entering the consulate.

Saudi Arabia has offered shifting accounts of what happened, initially saying Khashoggi left the embassy after receiving his documents and later that he was killed when an argument degenerated into a fistfight.

In the latest version, the Saudi prosecutor said a 15-member team went to Istanbul to bring Khashoggi back to the kingdom but killed him instead in a rogue operation.