UN experts to hear recording of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder

File: Murdered Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

A visiting United Nations-sponsored team of legal and forensic experts will listen to voice recordings related to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Turkish official says.

“They will listen to the voice recordings,” Yasin Aktay, an Adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters in Ankara, where he met UN human rights expert Agnes Callamard and her team.

The UN visit comes nearly four months after Khashoggi, a Saudi national and vocal critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia insists that his death was a “rogue operation” and has put 11 defendants on trial for the crime.

Turkey, however, has questioned the credibility of Riyadh’s inquiry.

In November, Mr Erdogan pointed to the “highest levels of the Saudi government” as ordering the murder.

He said Turkey shared the murder recordings with several countries, including Germany and the United States.

“There is no hope to establish justice there (Saudi Arabia) because the prime suspect is in a position to control the inquiry commission or the judicial process,” Mr Aktay said on Friday, without naming any Saudi officials.

Ms Callamard examined the neighbourhood where the Saudi consulate is located, ahead of her four-hour-long meeting with Istanbul chief public prosecutor, according to state news agency Anadolu.

She did not enter the consulate building, citing a lack of permission by Saudis, Anadolu said.

Ms Callamard, who has been meeting senior Turkish officials since Monday, also met Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, Mr Aktay separately told private broadcaster NTV on Friday.

Source:  Anadolu News Agency, Turkey.