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For The Washington Post 
14h ago
A U.S. intelligence report released Friday highlights Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying he ordered the 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, 59, a contributing columnist for the Washington Post and former former Saudi royal who had been become an important critic of the kingdom’s government.
With the release of the report, here is what you need to know about Khashoggi, his assassination, and its impact on US-Saudi relations.
– Who was Jamal Khashoggi?
Khashoggi was a well-known Saudi journalist and political analyst who came from a prominent family and initially cultivated close ties with the Saudi royal family. However, over time, he became more critical of the government’s policies, and in particular Mohammed bin Salman, who was appointed crown prince in 2017, when he was 31 years old. Mohammed (aka MBS) quickly became the kingdom’s de facto leader and vowed to bring modern reforms to the highly conservative, oil-rich country. But while working to cultivate this image abroad, Mohammed oversaw a fierce crackdown aimed at stifling criticism at home.
That soon came to include Khashoggi, who after repeated attempts by the kingdom to silence him in 2017 moved abroad and settled in a northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., Khashoggi began writing columns in The Washington. Post challenging the repression of political freedoms and free speech. But even outside of Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi didn’t feel completely safe. The Saudi authorities were increasing their vigilance and also their attempts to silence dissidents outside the country.
– How was he killed?
Khashoggi’s outspokenness brought many costs, one of which was divorce and the separation of his children and family in Saudi Arabia. He finally decided to remarry and settle with his Turkish fiancee in Istanbul. However, in order to marry her, he needed a document verifying his marital status from the Saudi consulate there. So, in late September 2018, he went to the consulate and was instructed to return a few days later to collect the documentation.
That triggered a chain of actions by the Saudi authorities, culminating in the assassination of Khashoggi and, according to US, Turkish and UN investigators, were likely led by the crown prince. Just before Khashoggi’s disappearance, 15 Saudi agents, including a medical examiner, flew to Istanbul on government planes. The team members removed the security cameras posted outside the consulate before Khashoggi arrived. Once inside, investigators said, officers killed him and cut up his body. It is unclear exactly what happened to his remains.
A man dressed in Khashoggi’s clothing left the consulate and walked through Istanbul, apparently to try to mislead investigators and reinforce the initial claim that he had left the building alive. Khashoggi’s fiancee, however, was waiting for him outside the consulate throughout the ordeal. When he did not return, she was alarmed and approached the contacts, just as he had advised her preventively.
– What did the Saudi officials say?
Saudi officials initially denied any involvement and claimed that Khashoggi had left the consulate on the same day. But amid intense international pressure, Saudi officials said two weeks after his disappearance that Khashoggi was killed in what they called a fight over an attempt to bring him back to Saudi Arabia.
In September 2020, Saudi Arabia announced that eight people had been sentenced to prison terms of between seven and 20 years for the murder of Khashoggi. However, the trial was closed to the public and the names of the defendants were never released, although they are believed to be members of the 15-man assault squad. Agnès Callamard, a UN human rights expert who investigated the murder, said the verdicts “had no legal or moral legitimacy.” He added: “They reached the end of a process that was neither fair, nor fair, nor transparent.”
A Saudi court previously exonerated two senior Saudi officials: Saud al-Qahtani, a powerful royal media adviser, and Ahmed al-Assiri, a former deputy intelligence chief, who Saudi prosecutors found to have played a key role in the Khashoggi’s meeting planning.
– How has your death affected relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia?
US lawmakers from across the political spectrum were outraged by Khashoggi’s assassination. But the Trump administration had established close and lucrative ties with Saudi Arabia, and rejected calls to sanction and marginalize the kingdom. President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner would communicate directly with the crown prince.
President Joe Biden, however, has vowed to “recalibrate” relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Biden said Wednesday that he read the report before his first scheduled call as president with Saudi Arabia. However, the American leader will notably communicate only with his official counterpart as head of state, 85-year-old Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, rather than his son, Mohammed, as the Trump administration frequently did.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest US arms customer and is seen as a key US ally in containing Iran’s political ambitions in the region. But the crackdown on dissidents in the country and its ongoing war in Yemen, which is currently facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, have also come under increasing criticism in Washington. The release of the report by the Biden administration is expected to further strain relations.
The Washington Post
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