Khashoggi murder tapes 'shocked' Saudi intelligence – Erdogan

Saudi intelligence personnel were "really shocked" upon listening to the tapes related to journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder, collected by Turkish intelligence and shared with several key foreign countries, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told media while flying back to Turkey from France.

کد خبر: ۸۵۱۲۴۷

تاریخ: ۲۲ آبان ۱۳۹۷ - ۰۹:۱۷

"Saudi intelligence was really shocked by what they heard," Erdogan, who was in France to attend the Armistice Day commemorations, said.

"There are people who are trying to mislead the investigation. The Crown Prince (Prince Mohammed bin Salman) said he will clarify the investigation and do everything he can. We are waiting with patience."

Turkey has shared recordings on the killing of Khashoggi with Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France and Britain.

On Monday, Al Jazeera quoting a senior journalist of Turkish Sabah newspaper said the audio recording from inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul also included Khashoggi's last words: "I'm suffocating ... Take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic."

Khashoggi, a critic of de facto Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate on October 2, as part of plan which Erdogan said was ordered from the highest levels.

Erdogan said he does "not believe for a second" that the prince's father King Salman ordered the crime.

"I really respect and appreciate King Salman, so I can't believe he'd do such a thing. This is impossible. I also told Mr Trump (US President ) that there is no need to look around for his murderers," Turkey's president said.

"The murderers are among those 18 people. Including the Saudis, we've let every country who requested the recordings including US, France, Canada, Germany and the UK listen to them."

After repeated denials, Riyadh finally admitted the 59-year-old Saudi journalist had been murdered at the mission in what it called a "rogue" operation.

Shortly after Khashoggi's murder, a member of the kill team instructed a superior over the phone to "tell your boss," believed to be Crown Prince, that the operatives had carried out their mission, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The Times, quoting three people familiar with a recording of Khashoggi's killing collected by Turkish intelligence, said, "the recording, shared last month with the CIA director, Gina Haspel, is seen by intelligence officials as some of the strongest evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi."