Ankara(ANN)-The head of investigations at Turkey’s Sabah newspaper, Nazif Karaman said audio recordings obtained from inside the Saudi consulate reveal that journalist Jamal Khashoggi suffocated to death after a plastic bag was placed on his head, Al Jazeera TV reported.

“I’m suffocating … Take this bag off my head, I’m claustrophobic,” Khashoggi is said to have pleaded with his murderers.

Al Jazeera reported Karaman as saying that, according to the audio recordings, it took seven minutes for Khashoggi to die.

According to Karaman, the Saudi hit squad placed plastic on the floor of the room where Khashoggi’s body was dismembered by the head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics, Salah Al-Tubaigy for nearly 15 minutes.

It is thought that the journalist’s body parts were later placed inside plastic bags and removed from the crime scene by a car belonging to the Saudi consulate.