The fiancee of the murdered journalist Khashoggi denounces the Saudi crown prince in the US

Hatice Cengiz, fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, in 2019 in Rome.TIZIANA FABI / AFP

The savage death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi made headlines again on Tuesday after his fiancee filed a complaint in a federal court in Washington against the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohamed Bin Salmán, and about two dozen other people allegedly involved in the murder committed in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.

His fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and the human rights organization that the reporter founded shortly before his death accuse Prince Mohamed of ordering the assassination of Khashoggi in order to "permanently silence" his fight for a democratic reform of the Arab world.

In the 61 pages that make up the complaint, Cengiz and Democracy Now for the Arab World (DAWN) allege that Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered "on the orders of the accused Mohamed Bin Salmán."

As they argue in the complaint, both the prince and the rest of the defendants "saw Khashoggi's actions in the United States as an existential threat to their pecuniary and other interests, for which they conspired to commit the heinous acts" to which he refers this complaint.

Khashoggi, a Saudi critical of the prince and self-exiled in the United States, was assassinated inside the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. That day, the journalist, who collaborated with the newspaper

entered in the diplomatic legation to collect a report on his marital status that would allow him to remarry and he no longer left there.

After repeated refusals, the Saudi authorities ended up acknowledging his death, although they have never clarified what happened to his body, whose remains have not yet appeared.

According to leaks from the Turkish secret services, which had microphones inside the Consulate, Khashoggi was dismembered.

Cengiz, a Turkish national, believes that members of the Saudi Embassy in Washington "lured" the journalist "to the Saudi consulate in Turkey through a ruse [according to which] that was the only place where he could get the document he needed."

"This false orientation occurred in the United States and is part of a larger conspiracy aimed at having a direct impact on Khashoggi's political activities in the United States," the lawsuit indicates, which in addition to targeting the Saudi crown prince has "Many members of his inner circle," including former councilor Saud al Qahtani and former

spy

, General Ahmed al Assiri.

Both were identified by Turkish investigators as the instigators of the murder and were prosecuted by a court in Istanbul.

"Without a doubt, no one behind such a gruesome murder should be able to become king," Cengiz said in a video conference with journalists.

“I ask the Government of the United States - a nation that defends justice, responsibility and human rights - to stand by me and support all those who loved Jamal and proclaim that they will support us with all their efforts to discover the truth and make sure we that those responsible end up in front of a court of law, ”declared Khashoggi's fiancée.

The CIA concluded in 2018 that Mohamed Bin Salmán had ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, contradicting Saudi Arabia's version that it knew nothing of the plot to end the journalist's life.

Last December, Saudi Arabia announced the death sentence of five men for the murder of Khashoggi;

three others received prison terms.

However, the sentence exonerated Saud al Qahtani, the controversial adviser to the crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohamed Bin Salmán, considered the contact between him and the executing command.