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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that members of his country’s intelligence community had listened to Turkish audio recordings of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trudeau’s comments, made in Paris during a peace forum to honor the anniversary of World War I, were the first acknowledgment by the leader of a Western country of receiving the intelligence from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
“Canada has been fully briefed up on what Turkey had to share,” Trudeau said. When asked if he had heard the recordings, Trudeau said no, but that members of Canadian intelligence had.
“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 next steps towards Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Saudi Arabia has drawn heavy criticism over the abduction and murder of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who was highly critical of the country’s leadership in recent years.
Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month to obtain some marriage documents but never emerged. Turkey later said it had evidence that a kill squad had lain in wait for him to enter the building.
After denying its involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance for weeks, the Saudi government admitted last month that he was killed inside the consulate during a fistfight. The government initially tried to paint his death as an accident, but later said it was “premeditated.”
Eighteen men have been arrested in the case; however, Khashoggi’s body has not been found.
On Monday, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was not aware of anyone in the French government having access to the recordings.
“If the Turkish president has information to give to us, he must give it to us,” Le Drian told France 2, a local television network.
On Tuesday, The New York Times appeared to link Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directly to Khashoggi’s slaying. A recording collected by Turkish intelligence reportedly includes audio of a member of the kill squad informing someone to “tell your boss” — believed to be the crown prince — that they had finished their mission. That audio was allegedly played for CIA Director Gina Haspel last month, although the agency has not confirmed that she listened to such a recording.
The Times also noted last month that at least nine of the 15 men who were sent to Istanbul just before the murder have some connection to the crown prince.
[HuffPost]
