Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday acknowledged that his country’s intelligence agencies have listened to recordings related to the disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, NBC News reports.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday that his country has provided Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany with “tapes” of the recordings.
A reporter asked Trudeau at a press conference in Paris, France if “Canadian agents have heard these recordings.” Trudeau responded, “yes,” making him the first world leader to back up Turkey’s claim, though he said he has not listened to any of the recordings himself, and did not provide any details of what was on the tapes.
"Canada's intelligence agencies have been working very closely on this issue with Turkish intelligence, Canada has been fully briefed on what Turkey had to share,” he added.
“I had a conversation with Erdoğan a couple of weeks ago, and here in Paris we had brief exchanges and I thanked him for his strength in responding to the Khashoggi situation,” Trudeau said.