A furnace gaping beneath overhanging leaves in a paved Istanbul yard could hide a terrifying secret -- the final cruelty meted out to a dissident journalist. A report by Al-Jazeera, a television channel based in Qatar, lays out the ghastly details: After Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi operatives inside Riyadh's consulate in October, his body was likely incinerated in that oven. This disposal, if it happened, is blood-curdling not just because of the fate of its victim but also for its location.

However, for it so happens that the furnace being eyed with suspicion, a beige chimney sitting atop a black-arched maw capable of melting metal, is at the Saudi consulate general's residence. But it gets worse. Al-Jazeera said, quoting authorities, that meat was cooked in the furnace to conceal the three-day burning of Jamal Khashoggi's remains.

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Another grisly detail: "Turkish investigators also found traces of Khashoggi's blood on the walls of the Saudi consul's office after removing paint that the assassination team applied after killing the Washington Post columnist on October 2, 2018."

The suspicion that Khashoggi's body was burned is not new. Last month the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu cited a police report to say the cops believed his remains were disposed of in that manner. Quoting the police report, Anadolu said the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi was murdered had two wells and a gas and wood floor furnace that could reach heat of over 1,000 degrees.

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