ISTANBUL: The fiancee of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said on Friday she did not accept U.S. President Donald Trump´s invitation to visit the White House because she thought it was aimed at influencing public opinion in his favour.
In an interview with Haberturk TV, Hatice Cengiz said she would not go to the White House until the United States was sincere in its efforts to solve Khashoggi´s killing, demanding that all those responsible be tried and punished.
Cengiz, a Turkish national, was placed under 24-hour police protection in Turkey on Monday, just days after Saudi Arabia finally admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside its consulate in Istanbul.
She was one of the last people to see Khashoggi alive, having gone with him to the consulate on Oct. 2. She waited outside for nearly 12 hours, alerting friends and officials when he failed to emerge.
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist, disappeared on Oct.2 after he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage to Hatice Cengiz.
For weeks Saudi Arabia denied knowledge of what happened to him, initially claiming Khashoggi had left the building.
On Saturday Riyadh said he was killed in a fistfight in the consulate.
The Saudi foreign minister has since called his death a "huge and grave mistake".
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