Al Jazeera World

Jamal Khashoggi: The Silencing of a Journalist

An investigation into journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death which implicates the highest levels of the Saudi government.

On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist working in the US for the Washington Post, entered his country’s consulate in Istanbul to process paperwork – and was never seen again.

On the same day, a 15-man Saudi hit squad had allegedly flown to Istanbul. All the evidence points to Khashoggi’s murder, suggesting that his body was first dismembered and then disposed of.

They refuse independent international investigation. That means they are hiding something. And what are they hiding? They're hiding the name of the person who ordered this operation. He is still safe and is still leading the country.

by Yahya Assiri, Saudi human rights campaigner

The killing of the well-known journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has resonated around the world, both as an attack on media freedom and as a shocking insight into the workings of a secretive and repressive regime.

The horrific story has been well documented in the media but there are still pieces missing and serious questions that remain unanswered: What happened to the body? Why did two weeks pass before Turkish investigators were allowed into the consulate to examine forensic evidence? And who was ultimately responsible for the killing?

Al Jazeera Arabic’s Tamer Almisshal goes to Istanbul to try and find answers. He has pieced together the chronology of events – and examined the theories as to what may have happened to Khashoggi’s body.

In mid-March, Saudi Arabia announced it had started court proceedings against those it believes were involved. The Kingdom still refuses to agree to a UN-led investigation, and despite the volume of powerful evidence, we still don’t know whether those ultimately responsible for Khashoggi’s death will ever be openly held to account.