Video shows bags believed to contain Khashoggi's remains: report

Video footage leaked to Turkish media shows a Saudi hit team in Istanbul carrying bags said to contain the remains of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose killing sparked international outcry and jeopardised the kingdom's relations with its Western allies.

The video shows the arrival of some of the members of the team at the Saudi consul-general's residence in Istanbul on the day that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate, several hundred metres from the residence.

One of the hit team members is seen carrying bags, which according to Turkish media, may contain body parts of the journalist, who was a critic of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate on October 2 to obtain documents certifying he divorced his ex-wife so he could remarry. He was killed and dismembered inside the consulate, in what Turkey called a "premeditated murder" orchestrated by the Saudi government.

Saudi officials have countered that claim, insisting Khashoggi was killed in a "rogue operation", after initially claiming he had left the building before vanishing.

Turkey said the killing was ordered at the highest level of Saudi leadership, implying Prince Mohammed was behind the murder. The kingdom has maintained the crown prince, also known as MBS, had no knowledge of the killing. 

Saudi authorities last month requested the death penalty for five unnamed suspects in Khashoggi's murder. Eleven suspects were indicted and referred to trial.

Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said the video first aired on Turkish new channel A Haber, which sourced the footage through Ferhat Unlu, a journalist with the investigation unit of the Daily Sabah newspaper.

The publication is known for its close ties to Turkish intelligence and has in the past reported on a series of leaks from the Turkish investigation into the murder of Khashoggi.

Courtesy : Aljazeera