'Khashoggi’s body was dismembered, dissolved in acid'

Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body was dismembered in order to dissolve it more easily in acid, said Yasin Aktay, a sociologist and advisor to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party who was also a friend of Khashoggi.

“According to the latest information we have obtained, the reason they dismembered Khashoggi’s body was to dissolve his remains more easily. They intended to leave no trace behind,” he said in an interview with Hürriyet daily.

“Murder, killing an innocent person is a separate crime and what they did to his remains is another crime and disgrace,” Aktay added.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed inside the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

“We had been informed that Khashoggi’s body was dismembered. But now we see that they did not only dismember his body but also vaporized it.”

The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday said that Khashoggi was strangled to death "in a premeditated way" shortly after he entered the consulate to obtain documents for his pending nuptials, adding that his body was disposed of after being dismembered.

“His body was not found, even though we traced it with all the current camera systems. There is evidence of this killing. If he knew what would happen after he entered the consulate, would he have gone through the door?” he concluded.

After denying any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, 59, for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Oct. 20 acknowledged his death, saying he had died in a fistfight.

Since then, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated, contradicting the previous official statement that it happened accidentally during a tussle in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.