ISTANBUL: Journalist Jamal Khashoggi repeatedly told his killers “I can’t breathe” during his final moments in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, CNN reported on Monday.

Quoting a source who said they had read the full translated transcript of an audio recording, CNN said that Khashoggi recognised one of the men, General Maher Mutreb, who told him: “You are coming back”.

Khashoggi replied: “You can’t do that...people are waiting outside.” His Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz waited for hours outside the consulate on Oct 2 and, when he did not return, contacted Turkish authorities about his disappearance.

There was no further dialogue in the relatively short transcript, prepared by Turkish authorities, CNN’s source said.

As people set upon Khashoggi, he started fighting for air, repeating, “I can’t breathe” at least three times. The transcript then used singular words to describe the noises, including “scre­­am”, “gasping”, “saw”, and “cutting”.

Turkish sources said a bone saw was used to dismember the journalist.

The transcript included no further mention of returning Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, and no indication that he had been drugged — as Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said in November.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018