1. Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Jamal Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile.
Jamal Khashoggi said that the Saudi government had "banned him from Twitter", and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government.
Jamal Khashoggi had been sharply critical of the Saudi rulers, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents related to his planned marriage but was never seen leaving.
On 11 December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was posthumously named Time magazine's person of the year for his work in journalism, along with other journalists who faced political persecution for their work.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was born in Medina on 13 October 1958.
Jamal Khashoggi was the nephew of Adnan Khashoggi and the first cousin of Dodi Fayed.
Jamal Khashoggi received his elementary and secondary education in Saudi Arabia and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration from Indiana State University in the United States in 1982.
Jamal Khashoggi began his career as a regional manager for Tihama Bookstores from 1983 to 1984.
Jamal Khashoggi continued his career as a reporter for various daily and weekly Arab newspapers from 1987 to 1990, including Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Majalla and Al Muslimoon.
Jamal Khashoggi served with the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Agency, and possibly worked with the United States, during the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.
In 1991, Jamal Khashoggi became managing editor and acting editor-in-chief of Al Madina and his tenure in that position lasted until 1999.
Jamal Khashoggi then was appointed a deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News, and served in the post from 1999 to 2003.
Jamal Khashoggi supported some of Crown Prince's reforms, such as allowing women to drive, but he condemned Saudi Arabia's arrest of Loujain al-Hathloul, who was ranked third in the list of "Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2015", Eman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, and several other women's rights advocates involved in the women to drive movement and the anti male-guardianship campaign.
Jamal Khashoggi was acquainted with Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and 1990s in Afghanistan while bin Laden was championing his jihad against the Soviets.
Jamal Khashoggi interviewed bin Laden several times, usually meeting bin Laden in Tora Bora, and once more in Sudan in 1995.
Jamal Khashoggi criticized Prince Salman, then governor of Riyadh and head of the Saudi committee for support to the Afghan mujahideen, for unwisely funding Salafist extremist groups that were undermining the war.
Al Arabiya reported that Jamal Khashoggi once tried to persuade bin Laden to quit violence.
Jamal Khashoggi dissociated himself from bin Laden following the attacks.
The New York Times describes that after SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, Jamal Khashoggi mourned his old acquaintance and what he had become.
Jamal Khashoggi briefly became the editor-in-chief of the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan in 2003.
Jamal Khashoggi then served as a media aide to Al Faisal while the latter was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.
Al Watan announced that Jamal Khashoggi resigned as editor-in-chief "to focus on his personal projects".
Jamal Khashoggi was a political commentator for Saudi Arabian and international channels, including MBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, and Dubai TV.
Wikistrat later admitted in an email to Forensic News that Jamal Khashoggi did in fact work for the firm.
Jamal Khashoggi relocated to the United States in June 2017 where he continued writing for Middle East Eye and began writing for The Washington Post in September 2017.
In September 2017, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who felt that Jamal Khashoggi's work was tarnishing his image, told Turki Aldakhil that he would go after Jamal Khashoggi "with a bullet".
Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 to obtain documents related to his planned marriage, but no CCTV recorded him exiting.
On 3 July 2020, Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi spoke at the opening of the trial of his assassination at the Turkish court stating that the Washington Post columnist was killed by a team of Saudi agents inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul through "a great betrayal and deception," and she asked that all persons responsible for his killing be brought to justice.
Jamal Khashoggi's statements were criticized by Congressional representatives from both parties, who promised to investigate the matter.
Jamal Khashoggi was reportedly married and divorced at least three times, though there is contradictory information on to whom he was married and when.
On 2 June 2018, Jamal Khashoggi married Hanan Elatr, an Egyptian citizen, in an Islamic Ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia, US She obtained a certified, signed copy of the marriage certificate in July 2021 verifying the marriage.
At the time of his death Jamal Khashoggi was planning to marry Hatice Cengiz, a 36-year-old Ph.
In London, Amnesty International put up a sign with that name outside the Saudi embassy, one month after Jamal Khashoggi disappeared into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
ET, symbolising the time Jamal Khashoggi was last seen before his death on 2 October 2018.
In December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was named by Time magazine as a Time Person of the Year for 2018.
Many of Jamal Khashoggi's banned articles were made available in the Uncensored Library to circumvent censorship laws.