Khashoggi was suffocated and dismembered in Saudi consulate, Turkey concludes

A protestor holds a photo of Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.

(Image credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)

published 31 October 2018

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was suffocated and quickly dismembered inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkish officials have concluded.

On Wednesday, Turkey's public prosecutor delivered his finding that Khashoggi's murder was pre-meditated, but said those results were not "concrete," reports Bloomberg. But Saudi Arabia's prosecutor left Istanbul for Riyadh without making a statement, signaling that Turkey is giving the "most conclusive official description" of what happened, The Washington Post reports.

Both prosecutors met in Istanbul for the past two days to discuss Khashoggi's death, reports Reuters. During that time, Turkey concluded a 15-person Saudi team killed Khashoggi shortly after he entered the consulate, but still did not publicly release audio it claims to have of Khashoggi's killing. Saudi officials were mostly concerned with "what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators" during the meetings, a senior Turkish official told the Post. They also did not indicate where Khashoggi's remains might be.

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Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Saudi journalist who wrote for the Post, disappeared Oct. 2 after entering the consulate. Saudi officials later acknowledged that Khashoggi was dead, claiming he was killed in a "botched interrogation," and later saying rogue operatives pre-planned the killing. CIA Director Gina Haspel recently traveled to Istanbul to investigate, but the U.S. hasn't released any findings on the case or made any substantial reprimands against Saudi Arabia. Read more about Turkey's conclusions at The Washington Post.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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