Jamal Khashoggi’s widow receives political asylum in the US

The widow of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was killed by Saudi agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018, was granted political asylum late last month, more than three years after she fled to the United States.

“I feel great and I made the right decision to come to this country,” his widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, said in an interview. “I can feel safer now that I am not afraid of being at the mercy of any dictator in the Middle East.”

Ms. Khashoggi, who was born in Egypt and married Mr. Khashoggi in 2018, fled to the United States from the United Arab Emirates in July 2020.

Her successful asylum application is one of the few recent reminders of the fallout from the killing, which sparked international outrage and strained ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia but never led to a permanent rift. Those close to Khashoggi have continued to push for punishment for those they say played a role, even as relations between the kingdom and the United States begin to mend.

Ms. Khashoggi, whose successful petition was De Post reported this earlier, applied for political asylum in August 2020 because she feared for her safety outside the United States. Ms. Khashoggi said she faced threats and intimidation, was under surveillance and was twice placed under house arrest in the United Arab Emirates because she was close to Mr. Khashoggi.

The killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a legal permanent resident of Virginia who was critical of the Saudi government in his columns, was approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler, according to an intelligence report released by the Biden administration in 2021.

The government took no direct action against Prince Mohammed after the release of the report, instead announcing travel and financial sanctions against other Saudis involved in the killing and against members of the elite Royal Guard unit who carried out the crown prince protects. The government came to the conclusion that it could not risk a complete breakdown of relations with the kingdom. Mr Biden, who as a candidate vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for ordering the killing, said he raised the killing when he met Prince Mohammed as president.

“No one feels there is justice for Jamal in what has been done over the last five years,” said Randa Fahmy, Ms. Khashoggi’s lawyer. She added that her client’s asylum application was delayed for months without explanation, even after several lawmakers advocated on her behalf.

“Hanan Khashoggi makes the clearest case for political asylum imaginable, and I’m glad I could help her get this vital protection,” said Representative Donald S. Beyer Jr., Democrat of Virginia, one of the lawmakers who supported her claim. a statement. “After everything she and her family have been through, it is good to see them receive this recognition and the level of safety that comes with it.”

Ms. Khashoggi has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, against NSO Group, the Israeli maker of a spyware program called Pegasus, which she claims was installed on her phone before she married Mr. Khashoggi. NSO Group has denied that its instruments were involved in Mr Khashoggi’s murder. The lawsuit was dismissed in October, but Ms. Fahmy said Ms. Khashoggi was appealing.

Ms. Khashoggi said she was also focused on retrieving Mr. Khashoggi’s personal belongings from Turkey and receiving financial compensation from Saudi Arabia. While the kingdom has paid Khashoggi’s four adult children tens of thousands of dollars and millions in real estate in compensation, Ms. Khashoggi said she had not received any compensation.

“They have Ms. Khashoggi to thank for that,” Ms. Fahmy said.

Ms. Fahmy and Ms. Khashoggi are also trying to find refuge in the United States from her relatives who remain in the Middle East and have also faced threats.