Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has filed a civil lawsuit against Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as well as other officials, seeking to hold them accountable for Khashoggi’s death.
The suit, filed in a district court in Washington, D.C., lists over four full pages of defendants. It was filed by Cengiz along with Democracy for the Arab World Now, Inc. (DAWN).
“The ruthless torture and murder of Mr. Khashoggi shocked the conscience of people throughout the world. The objective of the murder was clear – to halt Mr. Khashoggi’s advocacy in the United States, principally as the Executive Director of Plaintiff DAWN, for democratic reform in the Arab world. The murder was carried out pursuant to a directive of Defendant Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Defendants saw Mr. 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,” said the complaint.
The suit adds that Cengiz was financially dependent on Khashoggi and that she “suffered loss of love, companionship, moral support & affection that she previously enjoyed.”
The crown prince has been at the center of the story since Khashoggi’s October 2018 killing. President Donald Trump told Bob Woodward he “saved” bin Salman in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s killing, according to Woodward’s book, “Rage.”
Trump said during one of his interviews for the book, “I saved his ass. I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”
Shortly after Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, was killed and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October of 2018, the CIA concluded the crown prince himself ordered the assassination.
Read Cengiz’s complaint here.