Jamal Khashoggi was killed by asphyxiation “as soon as he entered” Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate, Turkish authorities said yesterday, as they accused Riyadh of refusing to co-operate with the investigation into his death.
Istanbul’s chief prosecutor turned up the pressure on Saudi Arabia by offering the first confirmation of details that have circulated in the media, describing the method of killing with a Turkish term that can mean strangulation, suffocation or choking. The chief prosecutor also said that Khashoggi’s body was cut into pieces before it was disposed of at an unknown location.
The details were released after a visit to Turkey by Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor, Saud al-Mojeb, which failed to yield information Turkey has been seeking about the killing. Turkish investigators had wanted to use Mr Mojeb’s trip to resolve a series of unanswered questions raised by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president.