Jamal Khashoggi: Canada listened to tape of Saudi journalist's murder, says prime minister Trudeau

Canada’s prime minister confirmed on Monday that officials of his government had listened to audio recordings capturing the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents in Istanbul last month.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Justin Trudeau said he himself had not heard any recordings but that members of Canada’s intelligence services had listened to them. It was the first public confirmation of the claim by Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Ankara had shared audio of the killing with world governments.

“Canada’s intelligence agencies have been working very closely on this issue with Turkish intelligence and Canada has been fully briefed on what Turkey had to share,” Mr Trudeau said at a press conference in Paris. “We continue to be engaged with our allies on the investigation into accountability for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and we are in discussions with our like-minded allies as to the next steps toward Saudi Arabia.”

The UK’s foreign minister Jeremy Hunt travelled to Riyadh on Monday, claiming he was planning to demand answers about Mr Khashoggi and to pressure for an end to the three-and-a-half year Saudi-led war in Yemen. But he refrained from disclosing when and for what reason the trip was planned, or what if any commercial matters he would also discuss with Saudi counterparts. On his arrival, Saudi Arabia’s official news agency said the two countries “reviewed historical relations”, the latest developments, and “joint action in combating extremism and terrorism”.

Ottawa and Riyadh fell out in the summer after Canada’s foreign minister tweeted support for a Saudi human rights activist. Saudi booted Canada’s ambassador, downgraded trade ties, and even ordered students and patients studying in Canada back home in what some analysts consider one in a series of reckless actions by the Riyadh’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the 33-year-old heir to the throne.

Germany, too, on Monday confirmed intelligence sharing with Turkey over the Khashoggi matter. “There was an exchange of information in the field of intelligence,” government spokesman Steffen Siebert told reports, demurring on whether that included the sharing of the audio tape.

Mr Erdogan said on Saturday that he had shared the audio with Saudi Arabia, the UK, the US, Germany and France, although French foreign minister Jean Yves Le Drian claimed on Monday that Paris was not “in possession” of the audio, and he refused to say in a radio interview whether French intelligence operatives had listened to the audio, accusing President Erdogan of “playing political games”.

Fahrettin Altun, spokesman for the Turkish president, rejected the French comments as “unacceptable” and contrary to facts, specifying that a representative of the French intelligence services listened to the audio recording on 24 October and was also handed a transcript.

Foreign minister Mr Le Drian brokered massive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia when he served as defence minister under former president Francois Hollande. A Western diplomat told The Independent that Paris has decided to stand by Prince Mohammad because of France’s extensive weapons sales to the kingdom and concerns that his removal could prompt “instability”.

The latest revelations suggest no end soon to global outrage over the murder of the dissident journalist, who entered his own nation’s Istanbul consulate to obtain personal-status papers ahead of a marriage and was slaughtered by Saudi operatives with ties to Prince Mohammad’s court.

A journalist for the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah told Al Jazeera that Mr Khashoggi choked to death with a plastic bag covering his head over seven minutes and that his last words were, “I’m suffocating ... Take this bag off my head, I’m claustrophobic.” The report did not specify if the journalist had heard the audio, read a transcript, or received a briefing.

The journalist said the newspaper would soon publish recordings of Mr Khashoggi’s last moments as well as images of tools used by the 18-man Saudi team to murder the journalist and dispose of his body.

Mr Khashoggi’s body has yet to be found amid claims and rumours that it was dismembered and dissolved by the security officers, coroners, and chemists allegedly dispatched from Riyadh to Istanbul.

Prime Minister Trudeau said he spoke to President Erdogan “a couple of weeks ago” and briefly with him in Paris during commemorations marking the 100th centennial of the end of the First World War. “I thanked him for his strength in responding to the Khashoggi situation,” said Mr Trudeau.