Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination was one of the century’s blackest farces

The story of Jamal Khashoggi’s death is well known. A prominent Saudi journalist, he walked into his nation’s consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 to obtain divorce papers permitting him to marry his fiancée Hatice Cengiz. Eighteen minutes later, he was drugged and then murdered by

a hit squad sent from Riyadh. After another six minutes, a bone saw brought in by a forensic doctor was heard chopping up the body, although the parts were never found. The killers, all senior intelligence figures, returned home in private jets.

This act of savagery, which showed stunning contempt for diplomatic norms, rightly sparked an international storm. Khashoggi, a well-known character in Arab circles, had started writing columns for the Washington Post from his new home in Virginia, and his criticism of the Saudi regime had become more vigorous. The murder team failed to detect cameras monitoring those entering and leaving the consulate, ensuring Riyadh’s claims that Khashoggi had left the building quickly fell apart.

Most popular

Druin Burch

Lucy Letby and the killer nurse I worked with

These sordid events make for a decent read in this book by Jonathan Rugman, a foreign affairs specialist with Channel 4 News, which is aided by the incredible amount of intelligence data leaked about the case.