Turkey reportedly believes Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after he was strangled and dismembered
- Warning: Graphic details.
- Turkish prosecutors said that Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
- After that his body could have been dissolved in acid, a Turkish official told The Washington Post on Wednesday.
- It contradicts a claim made anonymously by Saudi officials that Khashoggi's body was rolled up in a carpet and given to a local Turkish collaborator.
Turkish officials are reportedly pursuing a theory that Jamal Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after his killing.
The Washington Post on Wednesday cited an unnamed senior Turkish official saying that the body could have been destroyed with chemicals either in the grounds of the Saudi consulate or at the nearby consul-general's home.
Authorities found biological evidence in the consulate garden, the Post reported, which would support the theory that Khashoggi's killers got rid of the journalist's body near where he was killed.
"Khashoggi's body was not in need of burying," the official said, according to the Post.
The news comes as Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said Khashoggi was strangled shortly after he entered the consulate, and his body was dismembered afterward.
The acid theory contradicts a claim by unnamed Saudi officials to Reuters and the Associated Press that Khashoggi's body was wrapped up in some kind of fabric and given to a local Turkish collaborator.
Turkey's prosecutor and president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has demanded that the Saudis reveal the identity of the collaborator.
But so far the Saudis have not publicly mentioned or identified this person. The senior Turkish official told The Washington Post on Wednesday that his country's investigators do not believe this person exists.
Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor, Saud Al Mojeb, visited Istanbul from Monday to Wednesday this week, ostensibly to share intelligence on the Khashoggi's death and killers.
But Mojeb neither provided the location of Khashoggi's body nor identified a local conspirator.
Turkish authorities may have been pursuing the acid theory for weeks. Two weeks ago Sky News cited an unnamed source close to the investigation as saying that Khashoggi's body might have been destroyed in a "very fast-acting chemical acid."
Other news outlets, including the Guardian, also cited Turkish investigators or officials as saying that Khashoggi's dismembered remains were transported to the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul in Istanbul, Mohammed al-Otaibi.