Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has said the country does not know where murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's body is, amid claims it was rolled up in a rug and smuggled out of the consulate in Istanbul.

Adel al-Jubeir insisted on Sunday that the kingdom's crown prince was 'not aware' of the killing and the regime was still working on finding the body, saying Khashoggi had been killed in a 'rogue operation'.

A senior official had earlier claimed Khashoggi was killed in a chokehold and his body hidden in a rug so that a 'co-operator' could dispose of it away from the Saudi consulate.

Meanwhile a member of the 15-man 'hit squad' - allegedly sent from the kingdom to confront Khashoggi on October 2 - is claimed to have dressed in his clothes to make it look like he had left the building alive.

President Donald Trump yesterday accused the regime of lying and said he was not satisfied with Saudi Arabia's handling of the matter.

It comes as Saudi Arabia faces intensifying international scepticism over its story about the death of the journalist.

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Jamal Khashoggi (pictured) was killed in a chokehold and his body was rolled up in a rug and smuggled out of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a senior Saudi government official revealed

Foreign minister Jubeir said today: 'This is a tremendous mistake. This is a terrible tragedy. Our condolences go out to [his family]. We feel their pain.

'He was killed in the consulate. We don't know in terms of details how. We don't know where the body is.

'This was an operation that was a rogue operation, this was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding their authorities and responsibilities they had; they made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi in the consulate and they tried to cover up for it.

'We are determined to uncover every stone. We are determined to punish those who are responsible for this murder.'

After denying any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, 59, for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday said he had died in a fistfight at the consulate.

An hour later, another Saudi official attributed the death to a chokehold, which the senior official reiterated.

The latest account, provided by a Saudi official who requested anonymity, includes details on how the team threatened Khashoggi with being drugged and kidnapped and then killed him in a chokehold when he resisted.

In his strongest intervention yet, President Trump said on Saturday: 'Obviously there's been deception and there's been lies. Their stories are all over the place.'

The UK's Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the Saudi explanation about Khashoggi's death in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate is not credible and that the culprits must be 'held to account'.

But the UK government has faced a growing chorus of criticism from MPs calling on ministers to cut ties with the Saudis.

Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir (pictured) insisted on Sunday that the kingdom's crown prince was 'not aware' of the killing and the regime was still working on finding the body

CCTV footage shows journalist Jamal Khashoggi and his fiancee Hatice Cengiz together just hours before his death on October 2

Labour, the SNP, the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the Greens said in a joint letter it was 'hard to imagine what crime the Saudi government would need to commit' to earn a rebuke from Downing Street, the Guardian reported.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and and critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, went missing after entering the consulate on October 2 to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.

Days later, Turkish officials said they believed he was killed in the building and his body cut up.

But the Saudi official said it was rolled up in a rug and given to a 'local cooperator' for disposal.

Asked about allegations that Khashoggi had been tortured and beheaded, he said preliminary results of the investigation did not suggest that.

The Saudi official presented what he said were internal Saudi intelligence documents which appeared to describe an initiative to bring dissidents home to Saudi Arabia, including the specific one involving Khashoggi.

He also showed testimony from those involved in what he described as the 15-man team's cover-up, and the initial results of an internal probe.

CCTV video shows a black van in front of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2

A journalist shoots video behind barriers blocking the road leading to Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, where Khashoggi died

The official said all 15 team members had been detained and placed under investigation, along with three other local suspects.

However, he did not provide proof to substantiate the findings of the investigation and the other evidence.

This narrative is the latest Saudi account that has changed multiple times.

According to the latest version of the death, the government wanted to convince Khashoggi, who moved to Washington a year ago fearing reprisals for his views, to return to the kingdom as part of a campaign to prevent Saudi dissidents from being recruited by the country's enemies, the official said.

To that end, the official said, the deputy head of the General Intelligence Presidency, Ahmed al-Asiri, put together a 15-member team from the intelligence and security forces to go to Istanbul, meet Khashoggi at the consulate and try to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia.

'There is a standing order to negotiate the return of dissidents peacefully; which gives them the authority to act without going back to the leadership,' the official said.

Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, (pictured) said he had handed her his two mobile phones and left instructions that she should wait for him and call an aide to Turkey's president if he did not reappear

'Asiri is the one who formed the team and asked for an employee who worked with (senior royal adviser Saud) al-Qahtani and who knew Jamal from the time they both worked at the embassy in London,' he said.

The official said Qahtani, who worked for the crown prince, had signed off on one of his employees conducting the negotiations.

According to the plan, the team could hold Khashoggi in a safe house outside Istanbul for 'a period of time' but then release him if he ultimately refused to return to Saudi Arabia, the official said.

Things went wrong from the start as the team overstepped their orders and quickly employed violence, the official said.

Khashoggi was ushered into the consul general's office where an operative named Maher Mutreb spoke to him about returning to Saudi Arabia, according to the government's account.

Khashoggi refused and told Mutreb that someone was waiting outside for him and would contact the Turkish authorities if he did not reappear within an hour, the official said.

According to the latest version of the death, the Saudi government wanted to convince Khashoggi (pictured), who moved to Washington a year ago fearing reprisals for his views, to return to the kingdom

Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, has told Reuters he had handed her his two mobile phones and left instructions that she should wait for him and call an aide to Turkey's president if he did not reappear.

Inside the consul's office, according to the official's account, Khashoggi told Mutreb he was violating diplomatic norms and said, 'What are you going to do with me? Do you intend to kidnap me?'

Mutreb replied, 'Yes, we will drug you and kidnap you,' in what the official said was an attempt at intimidation that violated the mission's objective.

When Khashoggi raised his voice, the team panicked.

They moved to restrain him, placing him in a chokehold and covering his mouth, according to the government's account.

'They tried to prevent him from shouting but he died,' the official said. 'The intention was not to kill him.'

Asked if the team had smothered Khashoggi, the official said: 'If you put someone of Jamal's age in this position, he would probably die.'

To cover up their misdeed, the team rolled up Khashoggi's body in a rug, took it out in a consular vehicle and handed it over to a 'local cooperator' for disposal, the official said.

The Saudi official said the local cooperator is an Istanbul resident but would not reveal his nationality.

Forensic expert Salah Tubaigy tried to remove any trace of the incident, the official said.

Turkish officials suspect the body of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured arriving at Downing Street earlier this year), was cut up

Meanwhile, operative Mustafa Madani donned Khashoggi's clothes, eyeglasses and Apple watch and left through the back door of the consulate in an attempt to make it look like Khashoggi had walked out of the building.

Madani went to the Sultanahmet district where he disposed of the belongings.

The official said the team then wrote a false report for superiors saying they had allowed Khashoggi to leave once he warned that Turkish authorities could get involved and that they had promptly left the country before they could be discovered.

Asked why the government's version of Khashoggi's death kept changing, the official told Reuters the government initial account was based on 'false information reported internally at the time.'

'Once it became clear these initial mission reports were false, it launched an internal investigation and refrained from further public comment,' the official said, adding that the investigation is continuing.

Saudi authorities initially dismissed reports that Khashoggi had gone missing inside the consulate as false and said he had left the building soon after entering.

When the media reported a few days later that he had been killed there, they branded the accusations 'baseless.'

An activist dressed as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman marches in front the White House during a demonstration calling for sanctions against Saudi Arabia on Friday

Turkish sources say authorities in Turkey have an audio recording purportedly documenting Khashoggi's murder inside the consulate, but have not released it.

Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak published what it said were details from the audio. It said Khashoggi's torturers cut off his fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded and dismembered him.

Turkish officials have told Reuters that Khashoggi's killers may have dumped his remains in Belgrad Forest adjacent to Istanbul, and at a rural location near the city of Yalova, 55 miles south of Istanbul.

SAUDI ADMISSION SHOCKS CITIZENS WHO BELIEVED KINGDOM HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH KHASHOGGI'S DEATH Saudi Arabia's belated admission that journalist Jamal Khashoggi died in its consulate in Istanbul sent shockwaves through the kingdom - where many had believed the government's claims of having nothing to do with his death. Saudi authorities initially claimed Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed on October 2, and then that they were investigating his disappearance. But after a fortnight of denials, they admitted Saturday that the Washington Post columnist, a prominent critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed inside the diplomatic compound. Nevertheless, it has faced a growing chorus of incredulity over its explanation that he died after a fight broke out - as world powers demanded answers and the whereabouts of his body. Turkish officials have accused Riyadh of carrying out a state-sponsored killing and dismembering the body, with pro-government media in Turkey reporting the existence of video and audio evidence to back those claims. The admission stunned many in Saudi Arabia – who had believed the government's initial accounts – but others said they didn't believe the new narrative, Bloomberg reports. 'A very sad day for this nation, to see what the country had descended into,' one Saudi man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the Saudi government does not tolerate dissent, told the website. 'No country is perfect, but used to be proud that the country had a certain morality that aligned with Arabian values. We lost that forever unfortunately.' Another said: 'I'm so broken right now. I thought the Turks did it.' He was referring to rumours spread online by supporters of the Saudi government which alleged the kingdom's rivals – like Turkey, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood - were behind Khashoggi's disappearance. Another Saudi added that e 'hates when Saudi officials get carried away and torture people.' But a 24-year-old woman in Jeddah remained sceptical about the Saudi government's latest version of events. 'Why couldn't they say where they dumped the body?' she said. Advertisement

Turkish investigators are likely to find out what happened to the body 'before long,' a senior official said.

The Saudi official said investigators were trying to determine where the body ended up.

Riyadh dispatched a high-level delegation to Istanbul on Tuesday and ordered an internal investigation.

Meanwhile, sceptics have asked why so many people, including military officers and a forensics expert specialising in autopsies, were part of the operation if the objective was to convince Khashoggi to return home of his own volition.

The disappearance of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider turned critic, has snowballed into a massive crisis for the kingdom, forcing the 82-year-old monarch, King Salman, to personally get involved.

It has threatened the kingdom's business relationships, with several senior executives and government officials shunning an investor conference in Riyadh scheduled for next week.

Some US lawmakers are putting pressure on Trump to impose sanctions and stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, the UK's Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said there was a 'serious question mark over the account that has been given'.

Asked if he believed the Saudi government's explanation, Mr Raab said: 'No, I don't think it's credible.'

'I think it's a terrible case,' he told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show.

'We support the Turkish investigation into it and the British government wants to see people held to account for that death.'

But the Cabinet minister said the British government was not terminating its relationship with the state.

'We are not throwing our hands in the air and terminating the relationship with Saudi Arabia, not just because of the huge number of British jobs that depend on it but also because if you exert influence over your partners you need to be able to talk to them,' he said.

Mr Raab dismissed calls to ban arms sales to the kingdom.

'We have got one of the most rigorous export regimes in the world which makes sure arms are very carefully monitored.

'The problem with Labour's position is it would cost thousands of British jobs. So, what we would rather do is support the investigation, find out what happened.'

The Foreign Office on Sunday issued a joint statement from Britain, Germany and France condemning Khashoggi's killing, saying there is an 'urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened.'

In a statement, the governments said attacks on journalists are unacceptable and 'of utmost concern to our three nations.'

They said the 'hypotheses' proposed so far in the Saudi investigation need to be backed by facts to be considered credible.

They stressed that more efforts are needed in order to establish the truth, and added that they reserve judgment until they receive further explanation.

'The violent death of Jamal Khashoggi, within the premises of the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul had been feared for many days but its confirmation still comes as a shock,' the statement said.

'Nothing can justify this killing and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. ‎

'Defending freedom of expression and a free press are key priorities for Germany, the United Kingdom and France‎.

'The threatening, attacking or killing of journalists, under any circumstances, is unacceptable and of utmost concern to our three nations.'

It added: 'Our thoughts ‎are today ‎with Mr Khashoggi's family, his fiancée, and his friends - who have worried about him for weeks, and to whom we extend our most heartfelt condolences.'

It added: 'We take note of the Saudi statement which gives their preliminary findings.

'Yet there remains an urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened on October 2nd – beyond the hypotheses that have been raised so far in the Saudi investigation, which need to be backed by facts to be considered credible.

'We thus stress that more efforts are needed and expected towards establishing the truth in a comprehensive, transparent and credible manner.

'We will ultimately make our judgement based on the credibility of the further explanation we receive about what happened and our confidence that such a shameful event cannot and will not ever be repeated.

'We therefore ask for the investigation to be carried out thoroughly until responsibilities are clearly established and that there is proper accountability and due process for any crimes committed.'

'We will stay in close contact with our Saudi partners in that regard.

'The quality and significance of the relationship we have with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also rests with the respect we have for the norms and values to which the Saudi authorities and us are jointly committed under international law.'

