'I'm suffocating': Turkey reporter reveals Khashoggi's last words in murder recording

'I'm suffocating': Turkey reporter reveals Khashoggi's last words in murder recording
A Turkish journalist has revealed the last words of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi allegedly documented in an audio recording of his final moments.

2 min read
12 November, 2018
Erdogan has accused the "highest levels" of the Saudi government with ordering the hit [Getty]

A Turkish journalist has revealed the last words of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that were reportedly documented in an audio recording.

Nazif Karaman, the head of investigations at the Sabah newspaper, disclosed the alleged details of the recording to Al Jazeera on Sunday.

"I'm suffocating... take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic," Karaman said Khashoggi's final words were inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

He said the newspaper would soon publish some of the recording that documents the last moments of Khashoggi's life.

Karaman added that Khashoggi was suffocated to death while a plastic bag covered his head before a Saudi hit squad dismembered his body and dissolved it in acid.

The report comes after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his government has shared the recordings linked to the murder with Riyadh, Washington and other capitals.

"We gave the recordings, we gave them to Saudi Arabia, we gave them to Washington, to the Germans, to the French, to the English," he said in a televised speech.

"They listened to the conversations which took place here, they know," he said.

Some Turkish media and officials have said Ankara possessed an audio recording of the murder and it had shared it with the head of the CIA Gina Haspel when she visited Turkey in late October.

But the existence of such a recording has not been officially confirmed until now.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the consulate on 2 October to obtain documents for his forthcoming marriage.

After repeated denials, Saudi Arabia finally admitted the 59-year-old had been murdered at the mission in a "rogue" operation.

However, Erdogan has accused the "highest levels" of the Saudi government with ordering the hit, while some officials have pointed the finger at the all-powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.