The wife of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been granted political asylum in the United States. Hanan Elatr won the right to protection three years after fleeing persecution in Dubai in 2020 related to her ties with Khashoggi. File photo by Ali Haider/EPA-EFE
The wife of murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been granted political asylum in the United States.
Hanan Elatr, who went into hiding after her husband of four months was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 by a hit squad from Riyadh, thanked Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and Khashoggi’s former colleagues in a post on X for their “powerful help” in her asylum case and getting out the truth. Advertisement
But the 55-year-old former Emirates flight attendant from Dubai pledged to continue the fight to hold those responsible for the death of her husband on his behalf.
“Not done in getting justice for Jamal Khashoggi,” she wrote.
The U.S. decision is an acknowledgment of Elatr’s claims her life would be at risk were she to return to the UAE, her home of more than 25 years, or Egypt, where she was born.
She says she was detained and interrogated by UAE authorities in the months before Khashoggi’s murder, had spyware planted on her phone, and that her family in Egypt were detained and harassed by authorities there, including confiscation of their travel documents. Advertisement
“Hanan Khashoggi has the clearest case for political asylum imaginable, and I am happy that I could help her get this vital protection,” said Beyer.
“After all that she and her family have been through, it is good to see them granted this recognition and the measure of security that will come with it. I will continue to support Mrs. Khashoggi as she seeks accountability for her husband’s murder, a terrible injustice which I will not forget.”
In September 2020, a court in Saudi Arabia jailed eight people for their part in Khashoggi’s death but commuted the death sentences of five people convicted at trial the previous December to 20 years in prison.
The three other defendants received prison sentences ranging between seven and 10 years “for their role in covering up” the crime and violating the law.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard called the trial — in which none of the accused were named — “the antithesis of justice,” saying Khashoggi was “the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution.
The killing of the dissident Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, caused a major rift between Riyadh and Washington after the CIA and Western governments concluded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely ordered the killing himself, or he had tacit knowledge of the plot. Advertisement
MBS accepted responsibility for Khashoggi’s death, “because it happened under my watch,” but has always denied knowing about it or that he was personally involved.
