Hatice Cengiz (@mercan_resifi) is a Turkish activist, academic, and the fiancée of late Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard’s report concluding that Saudi officials and the Crown Prince himself bear liability for Khashoggi’s killing, Hatice testified before the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as the European Parliament, US Congress, and various other parliaments.
She now campaigns worldwide, advocating for justice and for an international criminal investigation into Khashoggi’s murder to hold the Saudi regime accountable for his death. As a researcher in Middle Eastern Studies, Hatice’s academic work focuses on the Arab Gulf states.
Learn more about Hatice by:
1. Watching THE DISSIDENT, a documentary produced by HRF on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi;
2. Reading Hatice’s call for accountability for her fiancé’s murder in her op-ed in The Washington Post; and
3. Watching an interview on the BBC with Hatice about the hours leading up to her fiancé’s murder.
