(25 Jun 2019) The fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has taken her campaign for justice over his grisly slaying to the U.N.'s top human rights body and is urging the United Nations to take "the next step" following a blistering report from an independent investigator.
Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen, says she hasn't gotten over the October 2 killing of the Washington Post columnist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. She remains haunted by the prospect that he might not really be dead because his body hasn't been found.
She called that aspect to her grief "an unbelievably different kind of trauma."
She spoke Tuesday at a 90-minute "side event" at the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council organised by Canada.
Cengiz provided one of several testimonials on the theme "Silencing Dissent," which mostly criticised alleged rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Cengiz leaned heavily on findings by independent UN expert Agnes Callamard, a fellow panelist, who laid out in excruciating detail in a 101-page report issued last week the alleged final moments of Khashoggi at the consulate, arguing that Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman should face sanctions and further investigation into his possible role.
Cengiz insisted that the report shouldn't simply end up as a report.
"The international public needs to pursue this, needs to exert pressure and the United Nations needs to take this to the next step," she said.
Callamard, an academic and longtime human rights advocate, took up broader themes after detailing her report to journalists last week, decrying a trend of the targeting of journalists and others who speak truth to power.
"The targeted killings of journalists, human rights defenders, dissenters more generally is on the increase," she said.
Saudi Arabia is among the 47 member states of the Human Rights Council, which opened its three-week summer session on Monday.
Callamard was expected to present her report formally to the council on Wednesday, and the Saudi delegation is entitled to reply.

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