Saturday, 23rd November 2024

Khashoggi's body was 'dissolved in acid' after his murder: Turkey

No forensic evidence has been provided to prove his body was dissolved.

Friday, 2nd November 2018

Jamal Khashoggi

An adviser to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also a friend of the slain journalist said that Saudi government operatives “dissolved” Jamal Khashoggi’s body after murdering and dismembering him.

The "only logical conclusion", Yasin Aktay said, was that those who had killed the Saudi journalist in Istanbul had destroyed his body "to leave no trace behind".

Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi rulers, was killed inside the country's consulate on 2 October.

No forensic evidence has been provided to prove his body was dissolved.

"The reason they dismembered Khashoggi's body was to dissolve his remains more easily", Aktay told the Hurriyet Daily newspaper.

"Now we see that they did not only dismember his body but also vaporised it."

The claims came as Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, called on world leaders to "bring the perpetrators to justice", in an editorial for five newspapers, including the Guardian and the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, reports quote Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as telling the US he considered Khashoggi to be a dangerous Islamist.

The reported phone call to the White House came before Saudi Arabia admitted Khashoggi had been killed.

Saudi Arabia has denied the comments were made or that its royal family was involved in the killing, and says it is "determined to find out all the facts".

Istanbul's prosecutor confirmed on Wednesday that the writer had been strangled.