The last words of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident journalist and U.S. resident murdered in Turkey, were captured on an audio recording of his death, according to a report.
“I can’t breathe,” Khashoggi can be heard saying three times, CNN reported Sunday, citing a source who had seen a translated transcript of the tape.
Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi royal family who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed on Oct. 2 during a visit to the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, where he had an appointment to collect paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee.
On the recording, obtained and translated by Turkey, Khashoggi is greeted upon his arrival by Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a former diplomat and intelligence officer linked to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and known to Khashoggi.
“You are coming back,” Mutreb told Khashoggi, according to CNN.
“You can’t do that,” Khashoggi responded. “People are waiting outside.”
The source told the cable news network that the transcript then indicates that several people, believed to be members of a 15-person assassin squad, attacked Khashoggi. Screams, gasps, and the sound of a saw presumably dismembering the media figure’s body can be heard. Members of the group are advised to listen to music as they work and Mutreb makes at least three phone calls to keep a third party apprised of their progress.
“Tell yours, the thing is done, it’s done,” the transcript reportedly reads.
Details from the transcript come after President Trump has repeatedly downplayed the importance of Crown Prince Mohammed’s alleged involvement in Khashoggi’s murder found with “high confidence” by his own CIA. Instead, Trump has highlighted the mutually-beneficial financial relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royal court has vehemently denied any connection between them and Khashoggi, but the transcript now calls into question its claims the columnist was killed in a rogue rendition operation gone wrong.
The Trump administration has sanctioned 17 Saudis believed to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death; 11 people have also been charged by Saudi prosecutors over his killing, five of whom face the death penalty.
