ANKARA, Turkey – The body of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was “dissolved” after he was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a month ago, an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.
The claim echoed what a Turkish official had told the Washington Post – for which Khashoggi was a contributor – that authorities are investigating a theory that the body was destroyed in acid.
“We now see that it wasn’t just cut up, they got rid of the body by dissolving it,” Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Erdogan and official in Turkey’s ruling party, told the Hurriyet newspaper on Friday.
“According to the latest information we have, the reason they cut up the body is it was easier to dissolve it,” Aktay said.
Saudi Arabia has faced a torrent of international condemnation over the killing of the royal insider-turned-critic.
Turkey’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday confirmed for the first time that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate on October 2 as part of a planned hit, and his body was then dismembered and destroyed.
“They aimed to ensure no sign of the body was left. This is what is understood from the prosecutor’s statement,” said Aktay, who was close to the journalist.