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Khadija Genghis, Khashoggi’s fiancee, filed a lawsuit against the Saudi crown prince in a US court.
Khadija Cankiz, the fiancee of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, filed a lawsuit in the United States against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Khadija, a Turkish citizen, accuses Prince Mohammed of ordering the murder of Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The Saudi crown prince denied issuing the order to kill the journalist, who lived in the United States and was known to criticize some Saudi policies.
Khadija and a human rights group, which Khashoggi founded before his death, are pursuing more than 20 people for unspecified damages.
In the civil lawsuit filed in Washington, DC, Khadija Genghis alleges financial losses and personal pain due to Khashoggi’s death.
Khashoggi’s human rights group “Democracy in the Arab World Now” says its activity has been disrupted.
The lawsuit alleges that Khashoggi was assassinated “at the direction of Mohammed bin Salman.” “The objective of the assassination was clear, to stop the promotion of Khashoggi in the United States … for a democratic reform in the Arab world,” he said.
Khadija Genghis’s lawyers and the rights group said in a “video conference” that the lawsuit focuses on holding a US court accountable for the murder and obtaining documents that reveal the truth, according to the Washington Post.
Khadija said in a statement: “Jamal believed that anything is possible in America and I trust the American civil justice system to achieve a measure of justice and accountability.”
Who is Jamal Khashoggi?
For decades, the late journalist was close to the Saudi royal family and also served as an adviser to the government.
Image posted, REUTERS
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 sparked a wave of anger
But the situation changed, so Khashoggi decided to go into self-imposed exile in the United States in 2017. He wrote a monthly article for the Washington Post and at times criticized the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In his first article with the newspaper in September 2017, Khashoggi said he feared being arrested in a campaign that appeared to target the opposition, which was overseen by the emir.
How did Jamal Khashoggi die?
Khashoggi was last seen alive when he entered the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, to obtain the documents he needed to marry his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.
After listening to audio recordings believed to be of people inside the consulate and provided by Turkish intelligence, United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard concluded that Khashoggi had been “brutally murdered” that day.
Investigations by the Saudi Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the murder was not premeditated.
He said the assassination was ordered by the head of a “negotiating team” who arrived in Istanbul to negotiate with Khashoggi to return him to the kingdom “by persuasion” or if he failed “by force”.
But the negotiations failed and Khashoggi was injected with a large amount of anesthetic, causing his death, according to the Saudi prosecutor. His body was dismembered and turned over to a local “collaborator” outside the consulate. No remains were found.
Almost immediately after entering the consulate, Turkish prosecutors said Khashoggi was strangled and his body disposed of.
In December 2019, the Riyadh Criminal Court sentenced five people to death for “having committed and participated in the crime of killing Khashoggi directly”. Three others were sentenced to 24 years in prison for “covering up this crime and breaking the law.”
The court ruled the acquittal of three people, including the former deputy director of Saudi intelligence, Ahmed Asiri.
Saud Al-Qahtani, a former senior adviser to the Saudi crown prince, was also investigated, but the Saudi prosecutor did not file any charges against him.
And last month, Saudi state media reported that the five death sentences had been reduced to 20 years in prison.
