Khashoggi reportedly told his killers 'I'm suffocating, take this bag off my head' right before he died

• A Turkish journalist who claims to have heard the audio recording of Jamal Khashoggi's last moments has revealed the journalist's last words.
• Khashoggi reportedly said: "I'm suffocating ... Take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic," according to Nazif Karaman, who works at Turkey's state-run Daily Sabah newspaper.
• Karaman's commments came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he passed on the audio recording to the US, UK, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.
• Istanbul's chief prosecutor said last week that Khashoggi was strangled to death.

Jamal Khashoggi's last words were "I'm suffocating ... Take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic," according to a Turkish journalist who listened to the audio recording of the journalist's death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Nazif Karaman, the head of investigations at Turkey's state-run Daily Sabah newspaper, made the comments to Al Jazeera on Sunday. He added that Khashoggi suffocated to death after his killers covered his head with a plastic bag.

The killing lasted for about seven minutes, Karaman said, citing the recording.

Khashoggi's killers also covered the floor of the consulate with plastic bags before dismembering Khashoggi's body, which took 15 minutes, Karaman said.

Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, who said last month that Khashoggi was strangled shortly after he entered the consulate on October 2 and his body was subsequently dismembered.

Karaman added that his newspaper, Sabah, would soon publish images of the tools used by Saudi agents and part of the audio footage of Khashoggi's last moments.

Read more: Everything we know about the troubling disappearance and death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

The mysterious recording

Karaman's comments came as Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, claimed on Saturday that he passed on the audio recordings to the US, UK, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that his country's intelligence agents - who have been working with their Turkish counterparts - heard the recording of Khashoggi's death, but he had not personally.

An unnamed senior German official told The Washington Post that the head of the Federal Intelligence Service listened to the recording during a trip to Ankara, calling the footage "very convincing." CIA Director Gina Haspel also heard the recording last month, The Post reported.

However, French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian said that his country had not received the recording, adding that Erdogan "has a political game to play in these circumstances."

A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign Office told Business Insider she would neither confirm nor deny Erdogan's comments because it was an intelligence matter.

Business Insider has contacted the Elysée Palace and Bundesregierung for comment. The White House's press office was unavailable.

Turkey ends the search for Khashoggi's body

Turkish police are ending their search for Khashoggi's body, but continuing their criminal probe into the murder, Al Jazeera reported, citing unnamed sources.

Turkish investigators reportedly believe that Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after it was dismembered.

Anonymous Saudi officials repeatedly pushed a theory that Khashoggi's body was rolled up in some kind of fabric and given to a Turkish coconspirator, but never revealed a name. Turkish authorities reportedly do not believe this collaborator exists.

Riyadh has been trying to distance its leadership, particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from the killing. In an op-ed for The Washington Post earlier this month, Erdogan wrote: "We know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government."

Read more: Erdogan says Saudis at 'highest levels' ordered Khashoggi's killing and calls for cooperation, but critics say he's part of the problem