Jamal Khashoggi Called Saudi Crown Prince ‘A Beast’ in WhatsApp Messages Months Before Killing

In a series of Whatsapp messages obtained exclusively by CNN, slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi spoke candidly about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the year before he was killed.

In more than 400 messages sent to a Saudi exile living in Canada, Khashoggi referred to MBS as a “beast” and a devouring “pac-man.”

Omar Abdulaziz shared the conversations with CNN. According to CNN, “The messages shared by Abdulaziz, which include voice recordings, photos and videos, paint a picture of a man deeply troubled by what he regarded as the petulance of his kingdom’s powerful young prince.”

In one message, Khashoggi wrote this about the Crown Prince, referring to the arrest of female Saudi activists:

Arrests are unjustified and do not serve him (logic says), but tyranny has no logic, but he loves force, oppression and needs to show them off. He is like a beast “pac man” the more victims he eats, the more he wants. I will not be surprised that the oppression will reach even those who are cheering him, then others and others and so on. God knows

Both Khashoggi and Abdulaziz also talked about taking action and even starting a youth movement, but then in the last months feared their conversations were hacked.

“God help us,” Khashoggi wrote just two months before he was killed.

Abdulaziz now says the hacking of his phone “played a major role in what happened to Jamal.”

He is now suing the Israeli creators of the technology he says was used to intercept his messages.

Meanwhile, the messages as shared to CNN may offer vital new clues to help piece together why Khashoggi was killed after entering a Saudi consulate.

Read the full CNN report here and watch more, above.