The killers of US journalist Jamal Khashoggi were told to listen to music while they cut him up alive, and one of them said he was enjoying it, the Turkish foreign minister said, citing an audio recording of the murder.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he has personally listened to an audio recording that confirms gruesome details that were previously reported about the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
“I listened to it. He was killed within seven minutes. It was a deliberate murder,” Cavusoglu told German outlet Suddeutsche Zeitung in an interview.
He described hearing a doctor address the murderers, telling them to listen to music as they cut apart Khashoggi’s body. One of them then said that he likes to cut people up. “It’s disgusting,” Cavusoglu concluded.
Various gory details of Khashoggi’s murder have previously been reported by various sources, including the alleged use of music to drown out the man’s screams as he was being dismembered alive.
Khashoggi was killed in early October, after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The alarm was first raised by Turkish officials. A team of 15 Saudis are suspects in the case, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is being accused of personally ordering the killing. Saudi officials deny the heir had knowledge of the murder and blame it on a rogue operation.