A STRONGLY pro-government Turkish newspaper has published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Newspaper Yeni Safak cited what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi’s slaying recorded on his Apple Watch, which it said showed the Washington Post columnist was tortured.

The newspaper said Saudi Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi could be heard on the tape, telling those allegedly torturing Khashoggi: “Do this outside; you’re going to get me in trouble.”

The newspaper said one of the Saudis torturing Khashoggi replied: “Shut up if you want to live when you return to (Saudi) Arabia.”

Al-Otaibi has been relieved of his post and will face an investigation, an official government statement said.

A source told Khashoggi’s paper, the Washington Post: “You can hear his voice and men speaking Arabic.

Saudi officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment in recent days.

The kingdom has previously denied allegations that Khashoggi was killed.

If the audio is authentic it proves that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

US President Donald Trump has requested the audio from Turkey “if it exists”.

He also said he expects to discover the truth about what happened to Khashoggi by the “end of the week”.

The tape is said to reveal Khashoggi had his fingers chopped off and his dying screams could reportedly be heard before he was “injected with an unknown drug” and fell silent.

It comes as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a bodyguard for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was confirmed as a suspect in Khashoggi’s disappearence.

Turkey has also reportedly entered the residence of the Saudi Consul General to Istanbul seeking more evidence over Khashoggi’s disappearence.

Dozens of police and prosecutors entered the al-Otaibi’s residence with sources telling the

Daily Beast that a general was given approval to interrogate Khashoggi from the Crown Prince on suspicion he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The source said that the general “botched” the interrogations and killed the journalist.

US President Donald Trump slammed criticism of Saudi Arabia as a case of “guilty until proven innocent”.

Mr Trump said the Saudi Crown Prince “denied all knowledge” of Khashoggi’s fate and compared the reporting to the case to the allegations of sexual assault levelled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

“I think we have to find out what happened first. Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Mr Trump said. “I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.”