Saudi suspect in journalist’s murder trained in Melbourne

A Saudi doctor implicated in the suspected assassination and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi trained in Melbourne.

Dr Salah al-Tubaigy has been named as one of 15 men placed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 when Jamal Khashoggi (inset) is suspected to have been killed. Picture: Victoria Institute of Forensic Medicine.

A Saudi doctor implicated in the suspected assassination and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi trained for three months with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Turkish officials have named Dr Salah al-Tubaigy as one of 15 men placed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 when Khashoggi is suspected to have been killed.

Former director of the VIFM Stephen Cordner this morning confirmed Dr al-Tubaigy had studied at the institute in 2015, adding that Dr al-Tubaigy had trained as a doctor in Saudi Arabia and had also been trained in the UK before coming to Melbourne.

“He became really the senior forensic doctor in Saudi Arabia, he was head of the Saudi forensic medicine commission,” Professor Cordner said.

He said part of Dr al-Tubaigy’s responsibilities in Saudi Arabia was dealing with disasters in particular deaths arising from pilgrimages to Mecca.

“One of his responsibilities was dealing with that and managing the dead and helping to identify them and of course that’s a space we have been involved in quite a lot over the last decade,” Professor Cordner said.

“He approached us on the basis of his interest in mass disasters really.”

Professor Cordner said Dr al-Tubaigy was sponsored by the Saudi government for his three month placement with the VIFM in 2015.

“His particular interest was CT scans, he did get familiar with the use of our CT scanner,” Professor Cordner said.

“He didn’t do any autopsies, he wasn’t entitled or registered specifically to actually undertake an autopsy but he did attend autopsies … he really just attended things that happened in the building.”

When questioned by ABC Melbourne radio host Jon Faine about Dr al-Tubigay’s alleged role in the assassination of Khashoggi, Professor Cordner said: “It wouldn’t be the only country where doctors get involved with nefarious activity”.

He told Faine some doctors around the world abandon the values of “what most of us like to think of as a noble profession”.

He said that around the world, some forensic doctors attend police interrogations.

“[They] might even take part in supervising some of that interrogation, may even be asked by the interrogators whether they can do particular things with whatever consequences,” he said.

“They might even be involved in torture and they might even be involved in worse.”

Asked whether Australian doctors should train people from countries and regimes with questionable records, Professor Cordner said the institute considered the individual’s circumstances.

“We approach them as though they’re honest people dealing with us, wanting to improve the life of the people in the country they come from,” he said.