Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Fiancée of Slain Journalist Khashoggi Urges UN to Take Action
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
June 25, 2019

Share

GENEVA — The fiancée of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi took her campaign for justice in his killing to the United Nations’ top human rights body Tuesday and urged the U.N. to take “the next step” following a key investigator’s finding that Saudi Arabia bears responsibility.

Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen, told a Human Rights Council event in Geneva about her grief over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul when he went there to pick up a document for their marriage.
Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen, told a Human Rights Council event in Geneva about her grief over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul when he went there to pick up a document for their marriage.
Cengiz said the possibility her fiancée might not really be dead haunts her because his body hasn’t been found, compounding her loss with “an unbelievably different kind of trauma.”
She appeared at a 90-minute council “side event” organized by Canada and hosted by advocacy group No Peace Without Justice. Cengiz provided one of several testimonials on the theme “Silencing Dissent.”
Most of the speakers criticized alleged rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Diplomats from Western nations and regional countries like Turkey and Qatar were in the audience.
In her testimony on Khashoggi’s killing, Cengiz cited many of independent U.N. expert Agnes Callamard’s findings, which were released last week in a 101-page report.
Callamard, a fellow “Silencing Dissent” panelist, laid out an excruciatingly detailed account of The Washington Post columnist’s alleged final moments at the consulate. She said more investigation was warranted of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s possible role in Khashoggi’s killing.
Photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
A 2014 file photo shows Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a news conference in Bahrain.  (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File)

Fiancée Said Report Needed to Be Acted Upon

Speaking through a translator, Cengiz said the report needed to be acted upon and noted the crown prince may one day be Saudi Arabia’s head of state.

“The report points to the fact that important Saudi officials, big officials, may have been involved. It says this should be pursued and it says that an international murder investigation should be opened.” — Hatice Cengiz
“The report points to the fact that important Saudi officials, big officials, may have been involved,” she said. “It says this should be pursued and it says that an international murder investigation should be opened.”
Cengiz said the “international public” needs to exert pressure to ensure the case isn’t forgotten “and the United Nations needs to take this to the next step.”
During her comments at Tuesday’s panel, Callamard, an academic and longtime human rights advocate, took up broader themes. She decried a trend of violence against journalists and others who speak truth to power.
“The targeted killings of journalists, human rights defenders, dissenters more generally, is on the increase,” she said. “The most worrying pattern is that impunity for those killings and the continuation of those killings (has) not gone down.”
Saudi Arabia is among the 47 member states of the Human Rights Council, which opened its three-week summer session Monday. Callamard was expected to present her report formally to the council on Wednesday, and the Saudi delegation is entitled to give a reply.

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

DON'T MISS

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

UP NEXT

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

UP NEXT

What Will Happen to CNBC and MSNBC When They No Longer Have a Corporate Connection to NBC News?

UP NEXT

Pope to Make Late Italian Teenager Carlo Acutis the First Millennial Saint on April 27

UP NEXT

US Vetoes UN Ceasefire Resolution in Gaza Conflict

UP NEXT

Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah Under Any Cease-Fire Deal for Lebanon

UP NEXT

Spain Will Legalize Hundreds of Thousands of Undocumented Migrants in the Next 3 Years

UP NEXT

TSMC Walks a Geopolitical Tightrope

UP NEXT

Volunteers Came Back to Nonprofits in 2023, After the Pandemic Tanked Participation

UP NEXT

New Study: Proposed Trump Tariffs Could Cost US Consumers $78 Billion a Year

UP NEXT

Iran Defies International Pressure, Increasing Its Stockpile of Near Weapons-Grade Uranium, UN Says

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

1 hour ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

1 hour ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

2 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

2 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

3 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

3 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

3 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

3 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

4 hours ago

Fresno Council Lowers Speed Limits on Friant and Audubon

4 hours ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s ...

8 minutes ago

8 minutes ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

13 minutes ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

53 minutes ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
1 hour ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

1 hour ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

2 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
2 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

3 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend