Saudi Arabia changed its explanation of Jamal Khashoggi’s death once again on Thursday, saying that the journalist’s murder was “premeditated” by Saudi operatives.

The kingdom initially claimed that Mr Khashoggi walked out of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul unharmed on October 2, then later said that he was killed accidentally in a “fist fight” with a 15-man team of Saudi agents.

Saudi Arabia said Thursday it had received new information from Turkish investigators which showed that “the suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention”.

In all three versions of the explanation, authorities insisted that Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, was not responsible for the Washington Post columnist’s death.

The Saudi announcement came hours after it emerged that Gina Haspel, the CIA director, had listened to a Turkish audio tape which allegedly shows that Mr Khashoggi was tortured before being killed.

Turkish officials have long said that the tape disproves Saudi claims that the agents did not mean to kill Mr Khashoggi. Turkey has not made the tape public and the CIA did not officially confirm that Ms Haspel had heard it.