Jamal Khashoggi's Fiance Pens Obituary-Style Op-Ed For Missing Saudi Writer

Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée to the Saudi journalist who has been missing for nearly two weeks, has written an obituary-style op-ed on Jamal Khashoggi , which was published Saturday by The New York Times.

Unlike a Washington Post op-ed she published earlier this week , which called on President Donald Trump to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance, Cengiz wrote frankly Saturday of her fiancé’s possible death.

Cengiz also didn’t just call for an investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance, she urged for the responsible party, “irrespective of their political positions,” to be punished.

“When we arrived at the consulate, he went right in,” Cengiz, a doctoral student in Instabul, wrote of her and Kashoggi’s visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Had I known it would be the last time I would see Jamal, I would have rather entered the Saudi consulate myself,” she added. “The rest is history: He never walked out of that building. And with him, I also got lost there.”

Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist who was formerly close to Saudi Arabia’s royal family but had grown critical of Saudi policies in recent years. 

He had been living in a self-imposed exile in Washington for over a year when he went to the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2 to obtain a document that would allow him to marry Cengiz.

“Since then, I have been thinking that Jamal and I are no longer in the same world,” Cengiz wrote for the Times. “I keep asking the same questions to myself: Where is he? Is he alive? If he is alive, how is he?”

Many experts presume Khashoggi has been murdered.

According to the Post, U.S. intelligence documents revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently attempted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, top Turkish authorities have told U.S. news organizations that they believe Khashoggi was assassinated at the consulate on orders from Saudi Arabia’s royal court.

One Turkish official told the Times that Khashoggi had been killed by a team of Saudi agents within hours of arriving at the Saudi consulate and an autopsy expert helped dismember his body. 

The Saudi government has denied they were involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance. In a “60 Minutes” interview, President Donald Trump said the incident was “being investigated” and warned that “there will be severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia was involved with Khashoggi’s death.

In her op-ed for the Times, Cengiz mourned Khashoggi while celebrating his life’s work.

“If the allegations are true, and Jamal has been murdered by the errand boys of Mohammed bin Salman, he is already a martyr,” Cengiz wrote.

“Jamal spoke up against oppression, but he paid for the Saudi people’s demand for freedom with his own life,” she continued. “His voice and his ideas will reverberate, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, and across the world. Oppression never lasts forever. Tyrants eventually pay for their sins.”