The head of the CIA on Thursday briefed US President Donald Trump on the latest developments in the investigation of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after a fact-finding mission to Turkey, officials said.

CIA director Gina Haspel delivered her report to Trump at the White House with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also present, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said, according to AFP, reports gulf-times.com.

Haspel shared her ‘findings and discussions from her trip to Turkey’, said Palladino, who declined to discuss the substance of her presentation.

The CIA chief held talks Tuesday in Turkey as global outrage mounted over the killing of Saudi palace critic Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish media said intelligence officers provided Haspel with video images and audio tapes of Khashoggi’s killing gathered from the consulate.

Sources told Reuters that Haspel heard an audio recording of Khashoggi’s death during the trip to Turkey, but it was not clear what could be heard. ‘We have shared with those who sought additional information some of the information and findings that the prosecutor has allowed us to share,’ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, without giving details.

Palladino said the US was still waiting for a more detailed probe by the Saudis. ‘We want this as soon as possible. The longer the investigation takes, the more concerned we become about its impact and its efficacy. And the longer it takes, the longer there are questions about this tragedy that remain unanswered,’ he added.

Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated, reversing previous official statements that the killing was unintended.

Saudi officials initially denied having anything to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate on October 2, before changing the official account to say an internal investigation suggested he was accidentally killed in a botched operation to return him to the kingdom.

Yesterday, Saudi state TV quoted the Saudi public prosecutor as saying the killing was premeditated, and that prosecutors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.

‘Information from the Turkish side affirms that the suspects in Khashoggi’s case premeditated their crime,’ said the statement carried by state TV.

Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, citing an audio recording, has said his torturers cut off his fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded him.

A European security source who was briefed by people who listened to the audio said of the recording: ‘There was an argument at the beginning, they insulted each other, it then developed. (Saudis said) ‘Let’s give a lesson to him’.’

Khashoggi did not appear to believe he was going to die, the source said.

Turkish police were investigating water samples from a well at the consulate yesterday after initially being denied access, broadcaster CNN Turk said.

Meanwhile, dozens of people stood vigil outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul yesterday to demand justice. Several carried cardboard images of his face and signs reading ‘Khashoggi’s friends’. One, his hands painted red, wore a mask depicting the face of Crown Prince Mohamed.

The Washington Post called on its readers to ‘Demand the Truth’ regarding the murder of Khashoggi, who was a columnist with the paper, in its online and print editions yesterday, DPA reported.

‘On Tuesday, October 2 Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi entered the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul and was brutally murdered,’ the newspaper wrote in the full-page print ad.

It then showed Crown Prince Mohamed with the words ‘Demand the Truth’ splashed in all caps. The online edition featured the same image.