Trudeau: Canada Has Heard Turkish Recordings on Khashoggi’s Killing

Local Editor

Canadian intelligence has listened to Turkish recordings of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist killed in Istanbul, said Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, although Trudeau added that he himself had not listened to them.

Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate by a team sent from Riyadh. Saudi authorities have acknowledged that the killing was premeditated, but his body has not been found.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said over the weekend that audio recordings of the killing had been given to the US, French, German and British 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 and I had a conversation with Erdogan a couple of weeks ago and here in Paris we had brief exchanges and I thanked him for his strength in responding to the Khashoggi situation," said Trudeau.

Trudeau specified that Canadian agents had heard the Turkish recordings, although he himself had not.

"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 with regard Saudi Arabia," added Trudeau at a news conference in Paris on Monday.

Earlier Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that France was not in possession of recordings related to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as far as he was aware.

Asked if that meant Erdogan was lying, Le Drian said: "it means that he has a political game to play in these circumstances."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team