Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (13 October 1958-2 October 2018) was a Saudi Arabian journalist, dissident, author, columnist for The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, allegedly at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives.
Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi government had banned him from Twitter, and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government.
Khashoggi had been sharply critical of the Saudi rulers, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
On 2 October 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents related to his planned marriage, but was never seen leaving. Amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside, an inspection of the consulate, by Saudi and Turkish officials, took place on 15 October.
Initially, the Saudi government denied the death, but following shifting explanations for Khashoggi's death, Saudi Arabia's attorney general eventually stated that the murder was premeditated.
By 16 November 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination.
On
11 December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was named Time magazine's person of
the year for his work in journalism, along with other journalists who
faced political persecution for their work. Time referred to Khashoggi
as a Guardian of the Truth.
More information: BBC
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was born in Medina on 13 October 1958. His grandfather, Muhammad Khashoggi, who was of Turkish origin, and originally from Kayseri, married a Saudi Arabian woman and was personal physician to King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Jamal Khashoggi was the nephew of the high-profile Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his part in the Iran-Contra scandal, who was estimated to have had a net worth of US$4 billion in the early 1980s.
Jamal Khashoggi was also the first cousin of Dodi Fayed, who was the companion of Diana, Princess of Wales, when the couple were killed in a Paris car accident.
Khashoggi received his elementary and secondary education in Saudi Arabia and obtained a BBA degree from Indiana State University in the United States in 1982.
Jamal
Khashoggi began his career as a regional manager for Tihama Bookstores
from 1983 to 1984. Later he worked as a correspondent for the Saudi
Gazette and as an assistant manager for Okaz from 1985 to 1987. He
continued his career as a reporter for various daily and weekly Arab
newspapers from 1987 to 1990, including Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Majalla and
Al Muslimoon. He also served with the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Agency,
and possibly worked with the United States, during the Soviet invasion
in Afghanistan.
Khashoggi became managing editor and acting editor-in-chief of Al Madina in 1991 and his tenure in that position lasted until 1999. During this period he was also a foreign correspondent in such countries as Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, and in the Middle East. He then was appointed a deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News, and served in the post from 1999 to 2003.
Khashoggi briefly became the editor-in-chief of the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan in 2003. After less than two months, he was dismissed in May 2003 by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Information because he had allowed a columnist to criticize the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), who is considered an important figure of Wahhabism. This incident led to Khashoggi's reputation in the West as a liberal progressive.
Khashoggi relocated to the United States in June 2017 and began writing for The Washington Post in September 2017.
In September 2017, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who felt that Khashoggi's work was tarnishing his image, told Turki Aldakhil that he would go after Khashoggi with a bullet.
Saudi Arabia used a reputed troll farm in Riyadh, employing hundreds of people, to harass Khashoggi and other critics of the Saudi regime. Former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden accused the Saudi Government of using spyware known as Pegasus to monitor Khashoggi's cell phone.
According to The Spectator, With almost two million Twitter followers, he was the most famous political pundit in the Arab world and a regular guest on the major TV news networks in Britain and the United States.
In 2018, Khashoggi established a new political party called Democracy for the Arab World Now.
In
December 2018, The Washington Post revealed that Khashoggi's columns at times were shaped by an organization funded by Saudi Arabia's
regional nemesis, Qatar, including by proposing his topics, giving him
drafts, goading him, and giving him research.
More information: RSF
Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 to obtain documents related to his planned marriage, but no CCTV recorded him exiting. Amid news reports claiming that he had been dismembered with a bone saw inside the consulate, he was declared a missing person.
Saudi Arabian and Turkish officials inspected the consulate on 15 October, during which Turkish officials found evidence that Khashoggi had been killed and that chemical experts had tampered with evidence.
In November, the CIA concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered Khashoggi's assassination. News reports since early October, based on communication intercepted by the U.S., had suggested that bin Salman had given direct orders to lure the journalist into the embassy, intending to bring him back to Saudi Arabia in an illegal extraordinary rendition.
In March 2019, Interpol issued Red Notices for twenty people wanted in connection to the murder of Khashoggi.
On
19 June 2019, following a six-month investigation, the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a 101-page
report holding the State of Saudi Arabia responsible for the premeditated extrajudicial execution of Khashoggi. The report was
issued by Agnes Callamard, a French human rights expert and UN Special
Rapporteur.
The Saudi Arabian government changed its story several times. Initially, it denied the death and claimed that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive.
Eighteen days later, it said he had been strangled inside the consulate during a fistfight. Eighteen Saudis were arrested, including the team of fifteen who had been sent to confront him. The fistfight story was contradicted on 25 October when Saudi Arabia's attorney general said the murder was premeditated.
Many Saudi critics have been reported missing under suspicious circumstances.
On 16 November 2018, the Saudi Arabian government organized Islamic funeral prayers in absentia for Jamal Khashoggi in al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Madinah after the morning Friday and in the Great Mosque of Mecca after the Friday Jumu'ah prayer.
In a 20 June 2019 interview, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir acknowledged to CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was gruesome, but he said he disagreed with the conclusion of the United Nation's 101-page report, calling it flawed.
In September 2019, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated that he bears the responsibility for Khashoggi's assassination by Saudi operatives because it happened under my watch, according to a preview of a PBS documentary. However, he denied having any prior knowledge of the plot.
More information: DW
On 23 December 2019, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced five officials to death and three others to 24 years in prison. Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director Lynn Maalouf stated that Saudi Arabia's verdict against the officials was a whitewash. In a statement released, she said, The trial has been closed to the public and to independent monitors... the verdict fails to address the Saudi authorities’ involvement.
On 22 May 2020, Khashoggi's children pardoned the five officials, which means they will be set free rather than executed.
On 7 September 2020, eight people tied to the murder were sentenced to prison. Their sentences ranged from 7 to 20 years. Saudi Arabia did not release their names.
On 31 October, Istanbul's chief prosecutor released a statement saying that Khashoggi had been strangled as soon as he entered the consulate building, and that his body was dismembered and disposed of. This was the first such accusation by a Turkish figure of government. His body may have been dissolved in acid, according to Turkish officials, and his last words captured on an audio recording were reported as I can't breathe. The recording was subsequently released by the Turkish government. Officials believed this recording contained evidence that Khashoggi was assassinated on the orders of the Saudi Royal Family.
In December 2018, Khashoggi was named by Time magazine as a Time Person of the Year for 2018.
More information: The Guardian
But in the same time,
I don't want to go back home and be silent again.
Jamal Khashoggi
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