Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée says Saudi crown prince must be punished

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Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée on Monday called on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to be punished after a US intelligence report found he had approved the murder of the Saudi dissident.

“It is essential that the crown prince… should be punished without delay,” Hatice Cengiz said on Twitter.

“If the crown prince is not punished, it will forever signal that the main culprit can get away with murder which will endanger us all and be a stain on our humanity,” she added.

Khashoggi went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to pick up documents in order to marry Cengiz but was killed and chopped up by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince.

“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” according to the newly declassified CIA report, which was released Friday.

The White House later announced tough new visa restrictions and asset-freeze sanctions, but none of the penalties strike at the prince himself.

A US report found that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Asked about criticism of Washington for not sanctioning the prince directly, President Joe Biden said an announcement would be made Monday but did not provide details.

Jamal Khashoggi died on October 8, 2018. — Jamal Khashoggi died in October 2018.

A White House official suggested no new steps were expected, Reuters reported.

“The aim is a recalibration (of ties) — not a rupture,” a senior Biden official said Sunday. “That’s because of the important interests that we do share.”

But Cengiz said the US has to take a tougher stance.

“Starting with the Biden administration, it is vital for all world leaders to ask themselves if they are prepared to shake hands with a person whose culpability as a murderer has been proven,” she said.

Under the new, so-called “Khashoggi Ban,” the US will impose visa restrictions on people who engage in serious counter-dissident activities on behalf of foreign governments.

The US has immediately restricted the visas of 76 Saudis “believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in press statement Friday.