David Ignatius

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Warning: Graphic content

I walked along a tree-lined street in a quiet area of Istanbul and approached a cream-coloured villa, adorned with CCTV cameras.

A year ago, an exiled Saudi journalist took the same path. Jamal Khashoggi was caught on CCTV. It would be The Last picture of Him .

He entered the Saudi Consulate, was murdered by a death squad.

However, the Consulate was bugged by Turkish Intelligence in the planning and the execution were All recorded. The tapes have only heard of very few people. Two of these people have now spoken exclusively to the BBC's Panorama program.

British barrister Baroness Helena Kennedy heard Jamal Khashoggi ' s dying moments.

"the horror Of listening to someone's voice, The Voice of Fear in someone' s, and you will hear of something to life. There was a tremble of power go through her body. "

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Kennedy made detailed notes of the conversations you heard between The Members of the Saudi hit squad.

"they can hear you laugh. It is a mould is a traditional business. They are waiting to know that This Man will come and he will be murdered and cut. "

Kennedy was invited to participate in a team under the direction of Agnès Callamard, the UN special Rapporteur for extra-judicial killing.

Callamard, a Human Rights expert, told me of their determination to use their own mandate, to kill the probe if the UN proved reluctant to mount an international criminal investigation.

Agnès Callamard, UN special Rapporteur for extra-judicial killing has you convince yourself a week of the Turkish-Intelligence -let you and Kennedy are listening to along with your Arabic translator, the bands.

"The intention to help is clearly on the part of Turkey to me, to prove to me that planning and premeditation," she says.

you were able to hear, to 45 minutes, extracted from recordings on two crucial days.

Jamal Khashoggi had was in Istanbul - a city where opponents of the regime across the Middle East , long a Refuge for a couple of weeks searched before he was killed.

The 59-year-old divorced father of four had researchers recently engaged to be married to Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish academic.

you were hoping to marry their life together in this cosmopolitan city, But again, Khashoggi needed his divorce.

On 28 September, he and Cengiz visited the Turkish municipal Office , But was told that she needed to be in the papers from the Saudi Consulate.

"This was The Last resort. He had to go and get the documents from the Consulate for us, that one is officially married, because he could not say back in his country," Cengiz me, if I meet you in a Cafe .

Hatice Cengiz Khashoggi had not banished becoming an outcast from his own country. I met Him 15 years ago at the Saudi Embassy in the Mayfair district of London. He was then in The Heart of the Saudi establishment - a smooth-tongued aide-de-camp to The Ambassador .

We discussed the recent terrorist attack by al-Qaeda. Khashoggi was known, its Saudi leader, Osama bin Laden, for decades. First of All , Khashoggi had a certain sympathy for al-Qaeda-aim to the overthrow of the autocratic regimes of the Middle East . But later on, he spoke Out against The Group 's acts of violence as his gaze became more and more liberal and he fought for Democracy .

Jamal Khashoggi with Jane Corbin in 2004 and In 2007, he returned home to edit the Pro-government newspaper al-Watan. But he was fired three years later for what he described as "the boundaries of the debate within the Saudi society".

in 2011, inspired by the events of the Arab Spring , Khashoggi was speaking Out against what he saw as the repressive and autocratic Saudi regime. In 2017, he was banned from writing and went into self-imposed exile In America . His wife was forced to divorce Him to leave.

Khashoggi was a Post for the Washington Post , for which he wrote 20 hard-hitting columns in the year before he died.

"when he was editor in chief in The Kingdom , he would cross red lines," says his friend David Ignatius , The Post 's senior foreign Affairs columnist and investigative journalist. "What I saw, with Jamal was that he was always himself in trouble by speaking his opinion. "

Much of Khashoggi ' s criticism was directed to the new crown Prince , Mohammed bin Salman.

MBS, as it is known today, was considered by many to be admired, in The West He was regarded as a reformer and moderniser with a new vision for his country.

the home, But in Saudi Arabia , he was hard against dissent and Khashoggi which was the raising of it in the pages of The Post .

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, This was not The Image of The Crown Prince wanted to project.

"I think, to ask that very serious of The Crown Prince , and he stopped to do his assistants, something about this Jamal is a problem," says Ignatius, who regularly visits Saudi Arabia and writes about his policy.

In Istanbul , would do the Saudis the possibility of "something" on Khashoggi.

On The Day of his first visit to the Consulate, Cengiz had to stay outside.

she remembers Khashoggi come Out of The Building with a smile on his face. He told her that officials had been surprised to see Him and offered Him tea and coffee.

"He said there was nothing to Fear , he missed his home town and breathing the familiar air, make Him feel really good. "

Khashoggi was told to come back in a few days.

But as soon as he was away, calls were made, back to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia - All recorded by the Turkish Intelligence .

"What was interesting about this phone call that, according to Mr. Khashoggi, because she says one of the persons was looking for," Callamard.

The First Call is accepted, alerted the mighty helper, the delivery of the MBS, the so-called Office of communication, Saud al-Qahtani.

"Anyone in the communications Office had approved The Mission . It makes sense to see that the reference to the communication Office , as a reference to Saud al-Qahtani," she continues.

"He has. the name directly into various other campaigns against individuals "

Saud al-Qahtani Al-Qahtani had already been the involvement in the arrest and torture of dissidents in Saudi accused of, as Activists, to to the have dared, before the ban was lifted, and high-profile suspected of infidelity.

In his writings, Khashoggi had accused al-Qahtani, the operation of a "blacklist" for The Crown Prince .

"Qahtani began extraordinary services - secret black operations," says Ignatius, who studied The Royal aide-de-camp. "That was part of his portfolio, and he has done it with a special ruthlessness. "

There are recordings of at least four calls on 28. September between the Consulate and the Riad. Talks between The Consul General and The Head of security at the Ministry of foreign Affairs, said to Him , a top-secret Mission , are - "a national task" - was planned.

There is No Doubt in my mind, this was a serious, highly organized Mission from The Top ," says Kennedy.

"wasn't it a little flaky, maverick operation on the page. "

On the afternoon of 1. In October, three Saudi Intelligence officers flew in Istanbul . It is known that the two worked in The Office of The Crown Prince .

Callamard thinks they were on a reconnaissance Mission .

"probably the Consulate rate of building, they determine what can and what can't be done. "

On a quiet and shady terrace in Istanbul , with views of the Bosphorus, I meet a former Turkish Intelligence officer with 27 years of experience.

Metin Ersöz is an expert on Saudi Arabia and its special operations missions. He says that his Intelligence services became more and more aggressive, according to Mohammed bin Salman crown Prince .

Metin Ersöz "they began with the kidnapping of operations and pressure on dissidents," he says.

"Khashoggi was late meeting in recognition of the risk and precautions to be taken, and he would have to pay a high price for you. "

In the Early Hours of The Morning of the 2. In October, a private jet landed at the airport in Istanbul .

aboard nine Saudis were also a coroner named Dr. Salah al-Tubaigy.

Dr. Salah al-Tubaigy To explore their identities and backgrounds, Callamard believes, was that the Saudi hit squad.

"The operation was carried Out by officers, they were prohibited in the exercise of their official capacity," She Said .

"Two of them had diplomatic passports. "

Ersöz says that this type of Mission - a special operation - required the consent of either the Saudi king or The Crown Prince would be.

The Saudis are controlled in the large and impersonal Mövenpick Hotel , located just a few minutes ' walk from the Consulate.

just before 10:00, CCTV shows a part of The Hit squad to enter the Saudi Consulate.

From listening to the tapes, Kennedy believes that Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb was The Man who ran the operation.

Mutreb was regularly traveling with The Crown Prince , discreetly in the background, to close it as part of his security detail.

mohammed bin salman, killing of jamal khashoggi, long reads, turkey, saudi arabia, istanbul

Source of news: bbc.com