Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée says he was concerned, but not fearful, about Saudi consulate visit

The fiancée of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said on Friday he assumed Saudi authorities would not give him problems or arrest him in Turkey, though he was concerned tensions would arise when he visited the consulate in Istanbul.

In her first television interview since his death, Hatice Cengiz told Turkish broadcaster Haberturk that Khashoggi had not wanted to go to the Saudi consulate, where he was killed shortly after entering on Oct. 2. The death of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and U.S. resident, has spiralled into a crisis for Saudi Arabia and its powerful young ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

International pressure has increased on the Saudi leadership to come clean on the case, after Riyadh shifted its official explanation a number of times. In its latest version, the Saudi public prosecutor said the killing was premeditated, reversing an earlier statement that Khashoggi was killed accidentally in a fight at the consulate.

"His local network in Turkey was very good, as you know, his political network as well," Cengiz said. "He thought Turkey is a safe country and if he would be held or interrogated, this issue would be swiftly solved."

He thought Turkey is a safe country and if he would be held or interrogated, this issue would be swiftly solved- Hatice Cengiz

Khashoggi was killed after entering the consulate to obtain a document that would allow him to remarry.

He handed Cengiz his two mobile phones and went inside, while she waited outside for him, she said Friday.

He was treated well during his first visit to the consulate on Sept. 28, she told Haberturk.

Cengiz said she did not accept an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump, the kingdom's staunchest Western champion, to visit the White House after Khashoggi's murder.

"Trump invited me to the United States, but I perceived it as a statement to win public favour," she said, pausing at times during an interview, and more than once breaking down in tears.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia on Friday to disclose who ordered Khashoggi's murder, as well as the location of his body.

Erdogan also said Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor will arrive in Turkey on Sunday as part of the investigation, and will meet with Turkish counterparts.

Extradition requested

Turkish prosecutors are seeking the extradition of 18 Saudis who they accuse of "murder by premeditation, monstrous intent or by torture." Riyadh previously arrested the 18 as part of its investigation into the case. Those include a 15-man security team that Turkey says flew in hours before the killing and carried it out.

"If you cannot get them to speak ... then hand them over to us and let us put them on trial," Erdogan said.

Turkey has other "information and evidence" about the killing by Saudi officials and will eventually reveal that information, the president said, without elaborating.

The Turkish president criticized initial Saudi statements that claimed Khashoggi had left the consulate unharmed after going there for paperwork related to his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.

"He will leave the consulate and not take his fiancée with him? Such childish statements do not go hand in hand with statesmanship," said Erdogan.

CIA Director Gina Haspel was in Turkey earlier this week to review evidence, and she briefed U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday.

What Trump called "one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups" was revealed to the world by Turkish leaks of information, including references to purported audio recordings of the killing and security camera footage of the Saudi officials who were involved as they moved around Istanbul.

The statement from Saudi prosecutors that Khashoggi's killing was premeditated contradicted an earlier Saudi assertion that rogue officials from the kingdom had killed Khashoggi by mistake in a brawl. That assertion, in turn, backtracked from an initial statement that Saudi authorities knew nothing about what happened to the Washington Post columnist.

Macron rejects link to arm sales

The shifting explanations indicate Saudi Arabia is scrambling for a way out of the crisis that has enveloped the world's largest oil exporter and a major U.S. ally in the Middle East. But a solution seems a long way off, partly because of deepening skepticism in Turkey and elsewhere that the brazen crime could have been carried out without the involvement of Prince Mohammed, the kingdom's heir apparent.

At a conference in Riyadh on Wednesday, the crown prince said the killing was a "heinous crime that cannot be justified" and warned against any efforts to "manipulate" the crisis and drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are regional rivals, but also diplomatic and business partners.

Khashoggi's death has derailed the powerful prince's campaign to project a modern image of the ultraconservative country, instead highlighting the brutal lengths to which some top officials in the government have gone to silence its critics. Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for nearly a year before his death, had written critically of Prince Mohammed's crackdown on dissent.

Austria, Canada and Germany have threatened to end arms and military vehicle sales to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the crisis.

"It is necessary to clarify the background of this horrible incident," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday in Prague during a news conference with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. "And if that does not happen, we will not deliver any arms to Saudi Arabia."

But French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday dismissed as "demagoguery" the calls by countries to suspend arms sales to the Saudis.

"What's the link between arms sales and Mr. Khashoggi's murder? I understand the connection with what's happening in Yemen, but there is no link with Mr. Khashoggi," Macron told a news conference in Slovakia.

"That's pure demagoguery to say, 'We must stop arms sales.' It's got nothing to do with Mr. Khashoggi," he added.

Meanwhile, Khashoggi's son, Salah, left Saudi Arabia after the kingdom revoked a travel ban, allowing him to travel to the U.S.

His U.S. destination was not immediately known, but his late father lived in the Washington area.