'Will he fit in the trunk?': UN report reveals gruesome Khashoggi killing

Moments before Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered last October, two of his suspected killers lying in wait at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul nervously discussed the crime they were about to commit, according to a UN report published on Wednesday.

Will it “be possible to put the trunk in a bag?” asked Maher Mutreb, a Saudi intelligence officer who worked for a senior advisor to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, a report from the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions said.

“No. Too heavy,” responded Salah al-Tubaigy, a forensics doctor from the interior ministry who would dismember and dispose of the body. He said he hoped the gruesome crime he would take part in would “be easy”. 

“Joints will be separated. It is not a problem. The body is heavy. First time I cut on the ground. If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished. We will wrap each of them,” Tubaiqy continued. 

Mutreb and 10 others are now on trial in Saudi Arabia for their role in Khashoggi’s killing but the trial proceedings are closed to the public.

Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, rejected the investigator’s report as “nothing new”.

He added in a tweet: “The report of the rapporteur in the human rights council contains clear contradictions and baseless allegations which challenge its credibility.”

The report, which calls for Mohammed bin Salman and other senior Saudi officials to be investigated over their liability for Khashoggi’s death, is based on recordings and forensic work conducted by Turkish investigators and also on information from the trials of the suspects in Saudi Arabia.

Khashoggi spent 30 years as a journalist with Saudi newspapers, but became critical of bin Salman in his columns for the Washington Post.

He entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain papers confirming his divorce from his ex-wife on October 2, 2018 but was never seen again.

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