Jamal Khashoggi
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (/kəˈʃoʊɡdʒi, kəˈʃɒɡdʒi/; Arabic: جمال أحمد خاشقجي, romanized: Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [dʒaˈmaːl xaːˈʃʊɡ.(d)ʒi]; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for Middle East Eye and 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 at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.[8][9][10][11]
Jamal Khashoggi
Journalist, columnist, author
Hatice Cengiz (fiancee, 2018)[7]
4[1]
- Muhammad Khashoggi (grandfather)
- Adnan Khashoggi (uncle)
- Samira Khashoggi (aunt)
- Soheir Khashoggi (aunt)
- Nabila Khashoggi (cousin)
- Emad Khashoggi (cousin)
- Dodi Fayed (cousin)
Khashoggi served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives.[12] Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi government had "banned him from Twitter",[13] 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.[14] He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[15]
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.[16][17] By 16 November 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination.[18][19] The murder has created tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, including calls for the U.S. to sever diplomatic ties with the kingdom.
On 11 December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was posthumously 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".[20][21][22]
Early life[edit]
Khashoggi's remote Turkish ancestors made the Hajj from Kayseri to Mecca some four centuries earlier and decided to stay.[23][24] Their family surname means "spoon maker" (Kaşıkçı) in Turkish.[25]
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was born in Medina on 13 October 1958.[1][26] His grandfather was Muhammad Khashoggi.[25] He was the nephew of Adnan Khashoggi[27][28] and the first cousin of Dodi Fayed.[29]
Khashoggi received his elementary and secondary education in Saudi Arabia and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration from Indiana State University in the United States in 1982.[10][30]
Personal life[edit]
Khashoggi was described as an observant Muslim.[144]
Khashoggi was reportedly married and divorced at least three times, though there is contradictory information on whom these marriages were to and at what time. With his wife Rawia al-Tunisi he had four children: sons Salah and Abdullah and daughters Noha and Razan Jamal.[145][146][147] He was also married to Alaa Nassif.[4][148] On 2 June 2018, Khashoggi married Hanan Elatr, an Egyptian citizen, in an Islamic Ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. She obtained a certified, signed copy of the marriage certificate in July 2021 verifying the marriage.[149] Hanan also produced pictures of their ceremony, and one of Khashoggi's friends additionally confirmed he attended the wedding.[5][6]
Khashoggi's four children were all educated in the U.S. and two of them are U.S. citizens.[150] After his assassination, all four were banned from leaving Saudi Arabia.[151]
At the time of his death Khashoggi was planning to marry Hatice Cengiz, a 36-year-old Ph.D. candidate at a university in Istanbul. The couple had met in May 2018 during a conference in the city. Khashoggi, a Saudi national, visited the Saudi consulate on 2 October to obtain paperwork that would allow him to marry Cengiz.[152]
On 22 April 2018 an Emirati government agency hacked the phone of Jamal Khashoggi's then fiancée, Hanan Elatr, using the Pegasus spyware months before the Saudi dissident was murdered.[153]