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Key suspect in Khashoggi case worked at Australian medical institute

Posted in Featured, World

Published on October 19, 2018 with No Comments

Trump says US asked for audio ‘if it exists’

President Trump has said that the US has asked Turkey for an audio recording of Jamal Khashoggi’s death which reportedly proves he was brutally tortured before his premeditated murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials said the audio recording had been handed over to the US and Saudi Arabia. However, early Thursday, Trump told reporters: “We’ve asked for it, if it exists” – before adding that it “probably does” exist.  Also Trump denied he was covering up for the Saudi royals but at the same time pointed to their importance as strategic and commercial partners.“I’m not giving cover at all. And with that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran,” he told reporters.

A key suspect in the reported torture and murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi worked in Australia for three months at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, where he observed autopsies being performed, reported media from Australia.

Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the office of the Saudi consul Mohammad al-Otaibi in Istanbul on 2 October. A report citing Saudi officials by media in US said that an audio-recording allegedly proves Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi leaders, was attacked by a Saudi hit-team upon entering the consulate. The recording was allegedly obtained by Turkish officials. Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, a forensics specialist who spent time in Australia, can allegedly be heard in the recording ordering the hit-team to put on headphones and listen to music while dismembering Khashoggi’s body. Khashoggi was known for his criticism of Saudi leaders.

The director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Prof Noel Woodford, is reported to have confirmed to an Australian daily that al-Tubaigy spent three months with the institute in 2015. He said that specialists visited from overseas “all the time”.

“When he approached the institute he was  interested in our CT scanning as it’s not common in every mortuary and forensic institute,” Woodford said.  Woodford said al-Tubaigy observed autopsies at the institute but was never involved in conducting any.

The former director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Stephen Cordner, told a radio station in Australia that al-Tubaigy’s visit was sponsored by the Saudi government. The doctor had also trained in the UK, Cordner said. “I remember Dr Tubaigy,” he said.  “He became the senior forensic doctor in Saudi Arabia, he was head of the Saudi forensic medicine commission.”

 

 

 

 

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