The fiancée of slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi blasted President Biden for agreeing to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next month.
In a video message posted Wednesday, Hatice Cengiz first discussed the loss Biden has experienced over the years of his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident, and then son, Beau, to brain cancer.
“Unlike your losses, the person I loved was brutally murdered and I’ve been forced to live in a world where his murderers have not only gone unpunished but have also been rewarded,” she said.
“Mr. President, I beseech you not to lose your moral authority or overlook this heinous crime,” she added. “You must uphold your role to bring all the perpetrators of this brutal crime to justice.”
According to U.S. intelligence, Salman ordered Khashoggi’s 2018 murder, when he was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where a Saudi hit squad killed him and then dismembered his body. The regime eventually admitted he was killed in a “repatriation effort gone wrong,” according to the New York Post, but has denied MBS’s connection.
"If you have to put oil over the principles, and expediency over values, can you at least ask, 'Where is Jamal's body? Doesn't he deserve a proper burial? And what happened to his killers?" Cengiz asks.
“If you have to put oil over principles, can you at least ask, ‘Where is Jamal's body? What happened to his killers?’”@mercan_resifi to @POTUS re-plans to meet w MBS. “You must uphold your vow to bring perpetrators of this brutal crime to justice.” Join us:https://t.co/PUMyi9TfuE pic.twitter.com/jWx7rGyYOa
— DAWN MENA (@DAWNmenaorg) June 15, 2022
Despite calling Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over its human rights violations, Biden will visit the country next month.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Cengiz's words "devastating" but would not say whether the president will ask questions about Khashoggi's murder.
“First I want to say just hearing that is devastating, right? It is Jamal Khashoggi’s widow and so clearly our hearts go out to her and the pain that she’s currently going through," Jean-Pierre said. "When it comes to human rights, that’s not something, the president is a straight shooter. This is not something he’s afraid to talk about. He has those conversations, leader-to-leader conversations on a regular basis. I cannot read out right now or lay out what the agenda is going to be or what the conversations are going to be. But I can assure you, I can assure you, that when it comes to human rights this is something that is a priority for this president."