Khashoggi’s Fiancée Criticizes Lack of Action Against Saudi Crown Prince

Date: 05 March 2021 - 21:25

News ID: ۸۸۲۲۸

ISTANBUL (Dispatches) – The fiancée of brutally-slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said on Thursday that world leaders should not maintain relations with a "murderer”, after a U.S. intelligence report implicated Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in his killing.
Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018. Turkish officials believe his body was dismembered and removed. His remains have not been found.
A U.S. intelligence report released last Friday said Prince Mohammed had approved the operation to kill or capture Khashoggi in Oct. 2018. The Saudi government has denied any involvement by the crown prince and rejected the report’s findings.
While Washington imposed sanctions on some of those involved, it spared the crown prince himself.
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée who was waiting outside the consulate when he entered to retrieve documents for their upcoming marriage, said the report was "a very huge and important step” in the path to justice, but must be acted on.
"That it was said there would be no sanctions against the person who gave the order for the crime to be committed created a strange dilemma in everyone’s minds. But this could change in the coming days,” she told Reuters in an interview.
"The process of seeking justice is a long process, sometimes it is not easy.”
Khashoggi’s fiancée was speaking after the conclusion of a court session in Istanbul of the trial in absentia of 26 Saudi officials over the journalist’s assassination.
Khashoggi’s lawyer Ali Ceylan and Cengiz asked the judge to add the U.S. intelligence report to the case file.
However, the presiding judge rejected the request on the grounds that it would "bring nothing” to the trial, despite the fact that the U.S. report clearly concluded that MBS "approved” the operations since it fit a pattern of him "using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad.”
After the court hearing on Thursday, Cengiz told reporters that the U.S. report "directly attributes responsibility to the crown prince. Therefore, we want this to be taken into account by the court.”
The next hearing has been scheduled for July 8.