Turkish forensic experts who searched the residence of Saudi Arabia’s consul-general in Istanbul, as part of the probe into the Jamal Khashoggi case, found “samples identical to those uncovered” at the kingdom’s consulate in the city, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.
Sources at the attorney-general’s office “say these samples provide further evidence of the conclusion that Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate building”, an Al Jazeera correspondent said, reporting from Istanbul.
Turkey has now asked the US to share Khashoggi’s blood and DNA samples with them, he added.
The search at the consul-general’s residence, which included police from anti-terrorism and forensic units, followed a lengthy search of the consulate building that concluded early on Tuesday when Turkish officials also took soil samples from its garden, state news agency Anadolu said.
Hours before the search at the residence, a Saudi team arrived at the building, Anadolu said, adding police cordoned off the street in Istanbul’s Levent district. 
Saudi consul-general Mohamed al-Otaibi had left Turkey for Riyadh on Tuesday.
Pro-government Turkish media published gruesome new allegations that Khashoggi was killed by being gradually dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad, some of whom the New York Times said were tied to Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.
Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported it had heard audio recordings of Khashoggi being tortured during an interrogation, having his fingers cut off and then being decapitated.
It said al-Otaibi can be heard on one tape saying during Khashoggi’s torture: “Do this outside. You are going to get me in trouble.”
The daily reported that in another tape, an unknown individual tells Otaibi: “If you want to live when you return to Saudi Arabia, be quiet!”
Last week, another Turkish daily had published preliminary evidence last week from investigators who it said had identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team that arrived in Istanbul on diplomatic passports hours before Khashoggi disappeared.
A New York Times report, citing witnesses and other records, linked four suspects to Crown Prince Mohamed’s security detail.
One name matches a LinkedIn profile for a forensic expert who has worked at the interior ministry for 20 years. Another is identified in a diplomatic directory from 2007 as a first secretary at the Saudi embassy in London. Others resemble officers in the Saudi Army and Air Force.
The Times said it confirmed at least nine of the 15 worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries.
The newspaper said it gathered more information about the suspects through facial recognition software, a database of Saudi mobile phone numbers, leaked Saudi government documents, witnesses and media.
One suspect, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was a diplomat assigned to the Saudi embassy in London in 2007, it said, citing a British diplomatic roster.
Mutreb has been photographed emerging from planes with Crown Prince Mohamed on recent trips to Madrid and Paris, the newspaper reported.
He was also photographed standing guard during the crown prince’s visits in the US to Houston, Boston and the United Nations.