Exclusive: TRT World obtains police sketches detailing Khashoggi murder

Murderers of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi tried to destroy the crucial evidence using organic cleansing as well heavy cleaning agents on the flooring of Riyadh's Istanbul consulate, Turkish police's crime scene sketches obtained exclusively by TRT World show.

The sketches have details of biometric evidence, collected by police, scattered around in the rooms where Khashoggi was tortured and his body dismembered.

The sketches show "self-evident" blood, sweat or tear-free areas despite cleaning attempts inside the consulate. 

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Riyadh critic, was killed by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the building on October 2 last year to collect some marriage-related documents.

Riyadh offered various, conflicting narratives to explain his disappearance before acknowledging he was murdered in the diplomatic building while seeking to shift blame for his death on a botched rendition operation being carried out by rogue agents.

Khashoggi's body has not been recovered and the kingdom has remained tight-lipped about its whereabouts.

On October 15 Turkish and Saudi officials, part of the joint working group on the disappearance of Khashoggi met at the Istanbul police department on Vatan Street.

The meeting, which was closed to the press lasted for about two hours following which the Saudi officials and Turkish police entered the consulate. Turkish police say they remained inside the consulate for 12 hours and examined every square metre of the building with the latest technology. Numerous DNA samples were also analysed.

On the sketches, purple light luminiferous in some sections show that organic cleaning had taken place suggesting cleansing of blood, tear, sweat or saliva.

Other sections, where blue light is luminiferous, show organic traces were not completely cleansed. 

Khashoggi suspects made 'chilling' jokes before killing

Meanwhile, according to secret tapes heard by UN investigators, Saudi operatives were heard joking and talking about dismemberment before Khashoggi's arrival.

Helena Kennedy, a British lawyer assisting the UN probe into Khashoggi's death, said recordings she had heard from inside the kingdom's mission in Turkey referred to the Saudi critic as a "sacrificial animal."

"There was a discussion about 'will the body and the hips fit into a bag this way'?", she told BBC television's Panorama documentary programme broadcast on Monday night.

Shocking details

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a self-styled moderniser, was feted by global leaders and business titans before the gruesome murder.

But the global fallout from the killing rendered him a pariah.

Kennedy said Turkish bugs in the Saudi consulate picked up a forensic pathologist suspected of cutting up Khashoggi's body as saying, "I often play music when I'm cutting cadavers. Sometimes I have a coffee and a cigar at hand." 

The pathologist also says, "'It's the first time in my life that I've had to cut pieces on the ground – even if you are a butcher and want to cut, he hangs the animal up to do so'," she added.

"They speak about waiting for Khashoggi to arrive and they say, 'Has the sacrificial animal arrived?'. You could hear them laughing, it's a chilling business."

'Suffocated'

Turkey handed over 45 minutes of recordings to the United Nations in order for them to investigate the incident.

"There's a point where you can hear Khashoggi moving from a man who is being a confident person, towards a sense of fear, a sense of rising anxiety, rising terror and then knowing something fatal is going to happen," said Kennedy.

UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who also heard the tapes, said Khashoggi asked his suspected killers, "Are you going to give me an injection?", to which they replied 'yes'."

She added: "The sound heard after that point indicates that he is being suffocated, probably with a plastic bag over his head."

Shortly afterwards, Kennedy said the recording picked up someone saying, "he's a dog, put this on his head, wrap it, wrap it." 

"One can only assume that they had removed his head," she explained.