Khashoggi's Fiancé Sues Saudi Crown Prince In US Court For Murder Of Journalist

Reflection in front of Embassy of Saudi Arabia commemorating Khashoggi's murder (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - The fiancé of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Hatice Cengiz, and a human rights group he founded filed a lawsuit in a United States court on Tuesday 20 October. The charge he has raised is that of Saudi Arabia's crown prince ordering Jamal Khashoggi to be killed.

The lawsuit also demands unspecified damages against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Hatice Cengiz also said that more than 20 other Saudis were involved in the killing. U.S.-Saudi Arabia relations are also known to have been shaken after Khashoggi's murder in 2018.

The Saudi Arabian embassy to the US did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. The Crown Prince - known by the initials MbS - has denied ordering Khashoggi's murder.

In a video conference, Cengiz's lawyer said the focus of the lawsuit was to get a US court to hold the crown prince responsible for the murder. Cengiz's lawyers also insisted that his party obtain documents that reveal the truth.

"Jamal believes anything is possible in America and I put my trust in the American civil justice system for justice and accountability," Cengiz said in a statement.

Quoting Reuters on Wednesday, October 21, Khashoggi is known to have criticized the policies of the crown prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, in a Washington Post column. He was killed and dismembered at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. He went there to get the papers he needed to marry Hatice Cengiz who is also a citizen of Turkey.

Cengiz and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a US-based human rights group founded by Khashoggi, filed the suit in US District Court for the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit stated MbS, his co-defendants and others plotted to "permanently silence Khashoggi" by the summer of 2018 after discovering "his plan to use the DAWN as a platform to support democratic reform and promote human rights."

A lawsuit was filed in August in a US court by a former high-ranking Saudi intelligence official accusing the crown prince of sending a hit team to kill him in Canada. Both lawsuits are brought under a law allowing US court action against foreign officials for alleged involvement in torture or extrajudicial killings.

One report said that in 2018 Khashoggi was forcibly detained after resisting and being injected with large amounts of drugs. This resulted in an overdose which resulted in his death, according to Saudi Arabian prosecutions. His body was then dismembered. However, his body was never found. Turkish prosecutors concluded that Khashoggi was suffocating as soon as he entered the consulate and his body was destroyed.

In December 2019, the Riyadh Criminal Court sentenced five people to death for "committing and participating directly in the murder of the victim". The other three were sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison for "covering up this crime and breaking the law."

Three people were found not guilty, including the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence, Ahmad Asiri.