Saudi intel shocked after listening to Khashoggi killing tape: Erdoğan

A Saudi Arabian intelligence authority was shocked after listening to the audio recording of the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, describing the content of the tape as “calamity” and calling on Riyadh to take concrete action against the perpetrators of the murder.

“All those who asked have listened to the audio recording of this murder. Our intelligence organization did not conceal anything. Besides Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom listened to this recording. The [content of the] tape is a real calamity. Even, the intelligence officer of the Saudis was shocked when he listened to the recording, as he said ‘This guy [perpetrator] is perhaps using heroin, only a man on heroin can do such a thing’,” Erdoğan told journalists on his return from Paris where he attended the centenary of the Armistice Day.

On a follow-up question on the reaction of the Saudi intelligence officer, Erdoğan repeated that the man was shocked when he listened to the recording. “Yes. The man was shocked when he listened to it. There is such a reality about this. There are those who are in efforts to distort this truth, despite the facts,” he said.