Saudi crown prince is sued over U.S. journalist’s death
WASHINGTON — The fiancee of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a human rights organization he founded shortly before his death have accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmanof ordering his killing to “permanently silence” his advocacy for democratic rights in the Arab world.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Washington, Hatice Cengiz and Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, alleged that Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered “pursuant to a directive of Defendant Mohammed bin Salman.”
The crown prince and two dozen named co-defendants “saw Khashoggi's actions in the United States as an existential threat to their pecuniary and other interests and, accordingly, conspired to commit the heinous acts that are the subject of this suit,” it said.
Attorneys Keith Harper and Faisal Gill said in a videoconference with reporters that the focus of the lawsuit is to have a court in the United States hold Mohammed liable for Khashoggi's killing and to obtain documents in both countries that reveal the truth.
Cengiz, who also spoke in the videoconference, said that because Khashoggi advocated democracy in the Middle East and human rights for all, “and especially because he advocated them in the United States, Mohammed bin Salman murdered him.”
“Certainly, no one behind this most gruesome murder should have any role in becoming monarch,” Cengiz said. “I ask the United States government — a nation that has stood for justice, accountability and human rights — I ask that you stand
with me and all those who loved Jamal and say, we will support your efforts to fully uncover the truth and ensure that those responsible are found liable in a court of law.”
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The crown prince has denied ordering Khashoggi's killing. Saudi officials have said the killing was a tragic accident, carried out by rogue agents who disobeyed orders to persuade Khashoggi to return to the kingdom.
The CIA concluded in 2018 that Mohammed had ordered Khashoggi's assassination, contradicting Saudi Arabia's insistence that the crown prince had no advance knowledge of the plot.
In a 61-page complaint, the plaintiffs recount how Khashoggi was killed by his government's agents two years ago, after becoming one of the Arabian Peninsula's most visible exiles and dissidents. His supporters recently remobilized DAWN, a project they said was dear to him, to expose abuses by governments in the Middle East, and in particular U.S.-allied nations such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and — three of the Trump administration's closest Arab partners.
Khashoggi was killed Oct. 2, 2018, after visiting Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents that would allow him to marry. He walked into the mission despite the risk. In the months that preceded that visit, he had been writing columns in the Washington Post that criticized the crown prince, who effectively rules Saudi Arabia and has cracked down on rivals and dissidents.
The journalist's slaying and dismemberment was first revealed by Turkey's government. The killing set off a wave of international revulsion and calls to ostracize Saudi leadership.
The kingdom prosecuted people it said were Khashoggi's killers in a trial broadly criticized by human rights groups, which noted that court sessions were closed to the public and that no senior officials were held to account.
President Donald Trump has remained one of Mohammed's most steadfast defenders.
“I was able to get Congress to leave him alone,” Trump said of Mohammed, according to a book by journalist Bob Woodward.
In the lawsuit, Dawn and Cengiz's attorneys with the Jenner & Block law firm allege that Saudi officials banned Khashoggi from speaking and writing publicly after he criticized President-elect Trump at a Washington think tank Nov. 10, 2016.
“Furthermore, after Mr. Khashoggi warned on Twitter that Saudis should be wary of Trump, Defendant al-Qahtani informed him that he was ‘not allowed to tweet, not allowed to write, not allowed to talk' and added, ‘You can't do anything anymore — you're done,'” the suit alleged, referring to Saud al-Qahtani, an influential media adviser to the crown prince.
Khashoggi's work in the United States is critical to the success or failure of the lawsuit.