Ankara hits back after Riyadh reiterated that suspects would not be extradited for trial in Turkey

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The international community should consider investigating the killing of Jamal Khashoggi under international law in the face of continued Saudi obstruction, Turkey has said, as alleged details emerged giving the fullest picture yet of the journalist’s last moments.

The Turkish presidential office hit back on Monday after Riyadh reiterated that suspects in the case would not be extradited for trial in Istanbul, where the dissident journalist was killed inside the Saudi consulate on 2 October.

Since Turkey had seen little evidence that Saudi prosecutors would shed light on the case, “it will be in the best interest of the international community to seek justice for the late Saudi journalist under international law”, spokesperson Fahrettin Altun told Reuters on Monday.

The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, once again ruled out the possibility of sending the 18 suspects to face Turkish justice in remarks made in Riyadh on Sunday, reiterating that the kingdom had no extradition policy for citizens.

Those comments in turn came after fresh arrest warrants were issued by Turkey last week for two top Saudi officials since sacked over their alleged role in the dissident writer’s killing.

Jubeir also criticised Turkey’s handling of the investigation into Khashoggi’s death, saying the authorities in Ankara had “not been as forthcoming as we believe they should have been”.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, says the operation to kill Khashoggi was ordered at the highest levels of the Saudi establishment, and has strongly suggested that the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was involved, steadily leaking information from the investigation to pressure his rival in Riyadh.

Riyadh has maintained the killing was a rogue operation carried out without the powerful crown prince’s knowledge.

More than two months since Khashoggi’s disappearance, Saudi Arabia is still facing international condemnation over his brutal murder and alleged dismemberment at the hands of a Saudi hit team. The 61-year-old’s body has still not been found and is thought by Turkish investigators to have been dissolved in acid.

According to a purported transcript of an audio recording of Khashoggi’s killing central to Turkey’s case against Saudi Arabia, and described to CNN, the journalist recognises someone whom CNN identifies as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a former Saudi diplomat and intelligence official working for Prince Mohammed.

After an exchange in which Mutreb allegedly says: “You’re coming back” and Khashoggi replies: “You can’t do that, there are people waiting outside for me”, the transcript describes noises consistent with a scuffle and Khashoggi says: “I can’t breathe” several times.

The recording then captures the sounds of screams and gasps and then noises identified as “sawing” and “cutting”.

A voice that Turkish authorities have previously identified as Dr Salah Mohammed al-Tubaigy, the head of forensic medicine at Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry, says: “If you don’t like the noise, put your earphones in or listen to music like me” during the dismemberment.

Mutreb makes several phonecalls, including one Turkey says was made to a member of the Saudi royal court, in which he says “tell yours”, believed to mean Prince Mohammed: “The thing is done, it is done.”

Turkey has refused to say how the audio recording was obtained, although its existence has been confirmed by Erdoğan and western officials, who also say they have listened to it.

US senators: we're certain Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi's murder Read more

The office of a US senator briefed on the ongoing investigation by the CIA director, Gina Haspel, told CNN the transcript was consistent with that briefing.

Monday’s revelations came after a Republican senator rebuked the White House over its handling of the affair, following reports that Jared Kushner had counselled Prince Mohammed over the fallout from the journalist’s murder.

“We don’t need direct evidence that [the Saudi crown prince] ordered the code red on this thing,” Marco Rubio said. “The bottom line is that there is no way that 17 people close to [Prince Mohammed] got a charter plane, flew to a third country, went into a consulate, killed and chopped up a man and flew back, and he didn’t know about it, much less order it.”

He added: “[Saudi Arabia] is not a decentralised country. That in a country like that, a man with his power, his influence and his control did not know it and did not order, it’s just not believable.”

On Saturday, a New York Times report said Kushner, senior adviser to his father-in-law, Donald Trump, had become “the prince’s most important defender inside the White House”.

The administration has acknowledged one call between the two men since Khashoggi’s disappearance, on 9 October, joined by the national security adviser, John Bolton. Citing “American officials and a Saudi briefed on their conversations”, the NYT said Kushner and Prince Mohammed have “continued to chat informally”.

Citing the unnamed Saudi source, the paper said, “Kushner has offered the crown prince advice about how to weather the storm, urging him to resolve his conflicts around the region and avoid further embarrassments”.

The US Senate is due to vote on Monday on a resolution to direct the removal of American forces from the Saudi-led war in Yemen, unless authorised by Congress. A resolution condemning Prince Mohammed is also expected to be voted on.