Hatice Cengiz; President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Murad Sezer, REUTERS; Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
The fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi criticized the Biden administration on Thursday.
Thursday, US officials argued that the Saudi Crown Prince deserves immunity, per international law.
Hatice Cengiz said Khashoggi “died again” as a result of the US position on Crown Prince Mohammed.
The ex-fiancée of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi blasted the Biden administration on Thursday after US officials argued that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman should be protected from any legal consequence.
US officials made the controversial argument for Crown Prince Mohammed’s immunity in court papers filed Thursday in response to a civil lawsuit against the Crown Prince by Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz said that the US’ backtracking on holding the Saudi head of state accountable added insult to injury.
“The United States government has expressed grave concerns regarding Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific killing and has raised these concerns publicly and with the most senior levels of the Saudi government,” the Department of Justice said in its filing. “However, the doctrine of head of state immunity is well established in customary international law.”
Cengiz, who has been a steady critic of the Biden administration’s normalization with the Saudi regime, tweeted Thursday that Khashoggi “died again” due to the US’ willingness to grant Crown Prince Mohammed immunity.
“We thought maybe there would be a light to justice from #USA,” Cengiz tweeted. “Jamal died again today.”
—Hatice Cengiz خديجة (@mercan_resifi) November 18, 2022
In July, Biden met and fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohammed — who is linked to the murder of Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — less than a month after promising he wouldn’t meet with him.
“I’m not going to meet with MBS,” Biden told reporters in June, using the acronym for Mohammed Bin Salman. “I’m going to an international meeting, and he’s going to be part of it.”
On Friday, Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan said that the Biden administration’s move to grant immunity to Crown Prince Mohammed gave his regime a “license to kill” critics.
During his campaign, Biden also promised to make the kingdom a “pariah” state for its role in Khashoggi’s murder. July’s meeting was part of Biden’s first trip to the Middle East as President and focused on trying to increase Saudi oil production to the US in light of record-high gas prices.
The meeting also came after the release of a US intelligence report in 2021 that tied Crown Prince Mohammed to the murder of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. That report enabled the Biden administration to place sanctions on a number of Saudi individuals named in the report, though Crown Prince Mohammed did not face any economic penalties.
Khashoggi’s fiancée also criticized the meeting between Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed, sharing a tweet captioned, “What Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today.”
“Hey @POTUS, Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’ next victim is on your hands,” the fake tweet read.