THE fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi says he assumed Saudi authorities would not give him problems or arrest him in Turkey, before he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for the final time.

In a heartbreaking interview with Turkish broadcaster Haberturk, Hatice Cengiz said Khashoggi was concerned tensions might arise, and that he had not wanted to go to the Saudi consulate, but he did not think it would escalate.

However, Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US resident, never left the consulate after entering it on October 2.

The journalist was killed shortly after entering, where he went to obtain a document that would allow him to remarry Ms Cengiz.

“His local network in Turkey was very good as you know, his political network as well,” Ms Cengiz told Haberturk in Friday’s broadcast.

“He thought Turkey is a safe country and if he would be held or interrogated, this issue would be swiftly solved.”

Ms Cengiz also told Haberturk he was treated well during his first visit to the consulate on September 28.

Khashoggi’s shocking murder has now spiralled into a crisis for Saudi Arabia and its powerful young ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi had been an outspoken critic of the crown prince.

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.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia on Friday to disclose who ordered Khashoggi’s murder, as well as the location of his body, heightening international pressure on the kingdom to come clean on the case.

Turkey also intensified its demands for Saudi Arabia to extradite the 18 suspects in the killing, a call that is likely to be met with resistance from the kingdom and could escalate tensions between the US-allied regional powers.

The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office submitted a request for Saudi Arabia to hand over the suspects in the killing, and Turkey’s Foreign Ministry will formally notify the kingdom, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The Saudi government has said it arrested and would itself punish 18 people for what it described as a “rogue” operation by officials who killed Khashoggi in the consulate.

“We expect our request (for the suspects’) return to be fulfilled because this atrocious event took place in Turkey,” said Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul.

Saudi Arabia has returned suspects to Turkey before but the stakes are much higher in the Khashoggi case as some of those implicated are close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose condemnation of the killing failed to ease suspicions that he was involved.

A senior Turkish official Turkey also said Turkey’s judicial system is better equipped to serve the cause of justice in this case.

“The court proceedings in Turkey will be open to international observers in order to ensure the greatest level of transparency,” the official said.

‘A DARKNESS I CANNOT EXPRESS’
Ms Cengiz, who is Turkish, says she has not received any condolence call from Saudi officials after her fiancee was killed in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul.

“I found myself in a darkness I cannot express,” she told Haberturk.

She said she had even asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called her about the case, whether he had any news that would make her happy.

“But he said he didn’t,” she said.

While Saudi prosecutors have acknowledged that Turkish evidence shows Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated, his body has not been found.

The Turkish president said Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor will arrive in Turkey on Sunday as part of the investigation into the killing.

Mr Erdogan said on Friday that the Saudi official will meet Turkish prosecutors during his visit.

He also said Turkey has other “information and evidence” about Khashoggi’s killing by Saudi officials in the Saudi Consulate, and that it will eventually reveal that information.

Turkey alleges a 15-member hit squad was sent to Istanbul to kill the journalist, a one-time Saudi insider who became a critic of Prince Mohammed and was a columnist for The Washington Post.

Mr Erdogan has said the three others in the group of 18 who were detained in Saudi Arabia were consulate employees.

SON FLEES SAUDI ARABIA
Khashoggi’s son has now left Saudi Arabia after the kingdom revoked a travel ban and allowed him to come to the United States.

State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Washington welcomed the decision.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the case of Khashoggi’s son, Salah Khashoggi, during his recent visit to the kingdom, where he made it “clear to Saudi leaders” that Washington wanted the son to return to the United States.

Meanwhile, Ms Cengiz told Haberturk she has declined an invitation to the White House by US President Donald Trump, accusing him of not being sincere about investigating the killing and only inviting her as an attempt to influence public opinion in the US.

In a New York Times column earlier this month, Ms Cengiz said that if Mr Trump made “a genuine contribution to the efforts to reveal what happened inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that day, I will consider accepting his invitation”.