ISTANBUL—Saudi operatives beat, drugged, killed and dismembered a dissident Saudi journalist in the presence of the kingdom’s top diplomat in Istanbul, Turkish officials said Tuesday, as Washington urged Riyadh to provide answers.
President Trump cautioned that Saudi Arabia should be considered innocent until proven guilty. His secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on a visit to the kingdom, said Saudi leaders had “strongly denied” involvement and were conducting “a serious and credible investigation.”
Turkish officials said they shared evidence in recent days, including the details of an audio recording, with both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to support their conclusion that Mr. Khashoggi was killed at the hand of Saudi operatives. It wasn’t clear how Turkish officials had an audio recording.
The recording indicates how Mr. Khashoggi was killed in the office of the Saudi consul general, Mohammad al-Otaibi, minutes after he walked into the consulate building on Oct. 2, said people familiar with the matter. Mr. Khashoggi wasn’t interrogated, the people said. Instead, he was beaten up, drugged and killed by Saudi operatives who had flown in from Riyadh earlier in the day, the people said.
Then, on the recording, a voice can be heard inviting the consul to leave the room, the people familiar with the matter said. The voice of a man Turkish authorities identified as Saudi forensic specialist Salah Al Tabiqi can be heard recommending other people present to listen to some music while he dismembered Mr. Khashoggi’s body, the people said.
Turkish investigators have focused on a pair of Gulfstream jets that flight-tracking services checked by The Wall Street Journal show landed in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and flew back to Riyadh on Oct. 3 after two layovers. The planes belong to a company, Sky Prime Aviation Services Ltd., that was seized by the Saudi government after its anticorruption drive last year.
Turkish authorities have also released names and photos of Saudi men they suspect of involvement in the events in Istanbul. One, Mohammad Saad al-Zahrani, was shown in Saudi state television footage from April 2017 next to the Saudi crown prince, wearing a Saudi Royal Guard uniform with his name tag.
The list also includes the names Waleed Abdullah Alshehri and Thaar Ghaleb al Harbi. Saudi press reports from 2016 identified Mr. Alsshehri as a Saudi Air Force major. Mr. Harbi was promoted to lieutenant by Prince Mohammed for his role in defending the royal family’s Al Salam palace in Jeddah during an attack in October 2017, according to Saudi press reports.
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