Jamal Khashoggi's murderers tried to force him to send a message to his son, according to Turkey's Sabah newspaper, which says it has obtained recordings from the day the Saudi journalist was murdered inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate. In transcripts published by the newspaper, a forensic expert tasked with dismembering the dissident's body discusses cutting up bodies with another member of the Saudi hit squad less than 15 minutes before Khashoggi arrived at the consulate on Oct. 2, 2018, to obtain a document he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée. "I've always worked on cadavers. I know how to cut very well," the doctor says. "I have never worked on a warm body though, but I'll also manage that easily. I normally put on my earphones and listen to music when I cut cadavers. In the meantime, I sip on my coffee and smoke."
According to the transcripts, the killers told Khashoggi he had to return to Riyadh because of an Interpol order, the BBC reports. They ordered him to send a text message to his son, telling him not to worry if he doesn't hear from him, but Khashoggi refused, saying: "How can such a thing take place at a consulate? I'm not writing anything." Saudi hit squad member Maher Mutreb tells Khashoggi: "Help us so we can help you, because in the end we will take you back to Saudi Arabia and if you don't help us you know what will happen eventually." Khashoggi was then drugged and had a plastic bag placed over his head, Sabah reports. His final words, according to the transcript, were: "Don't cover my mouth. I have asthma, don't do it. You'll suffocate me." The newspaper says the recordings were obtained from the country's intelligence agency, reports the AP. (More Jamal Khashoggi stories.)
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