U.S. President Donald Trump has declined to listen to an audio recording that allegedly captured the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In an Interview with Fox News on Sunday, President Trump said he already knew everything that went on in the tape, thus he needed not to hear it.
“I don’t want to hear the tape, no reason for me to hear the tape,” Trump said
“I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it … It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”
Khashoggi was last seen on October 2 entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and efforts to get his whereabouts elicited conflicting accounts of information from Saudi Arabian officials, sparking a worldwide outcry.
Saudi officials had initially said the journalist left the consulate unharmed, but later – under intense pressure to explain Khashoggi’s whereabouts, admitted that he was dead. They said he died from a fist-fight.
His body has however not been found yet.
The U.S. on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials for their alleged role in the killing, but they did not target the Saudi government.
Turkey and Germany have also been vocal in the quest to find the truth about Khashoggi’s killing, with Berlin even stopping an arms deal between the two countries.
