Who was Jamal Khashoggi?

GDN - The killed journalist Khashoggi was considered objective and moderate critic and not as a fundamental opponent of the Saudi royal family. Khashoggi was close to Islamists, elites and democrats.

The journalist was very multi-faceted and quite ambivalent. The grandfather was a doctor and treated the king. The uncle of Khashoggi was a well-known arms dealer (source: New York Times).

Khashoggi came from a reputable, well-known Saudi Arabian family with great influence on the Saudi elite and was born in 1958 in Medina. Khashoggi went to the US at a young age to study there. He never relinquished his Islamic values and still enjoyed democratic advantages.
The journalist Khashoggi is said to have at least been close to the Muslim Brothers and maintained relations with the Muslim Brothers to the present day. As a journalist, he gained considerable attention because he was a companion of Osama bin Laden. Khashoggi interviewed the later al-Qaeda terrorists several times in Sudan and Afghanistan. Conservative values accompanied the journalist until his death in 2018.

It is also clear that he was partly critical of the West. As bin Laden became more radicalized, Khashoggi renounced the later terrorist bin Laden. Liberal ideas now accompanied him and criticized the strict reading of Islam by Salafists. This circumstance brought Khashoggi into conflict with the Saudi establishment.

The relationship with the royal family was very ambivalent. As an advisor to the powerful Prince Turki al Faisal, long accredited as an ambassador to Washington while also leading the Saudi intelligence services, Khashoggi was in high demand in royalty. He worked as a consultant and unofficial speaker of the royal family. His Vita continues to point out that he has worked for many media for many years. Twice he was entrusted the management of the newspaper "Al-Watan", which was also taken away twice because of critical reporting again. As of 2015, Khashoggi claims he has threatened the situation in Saudi Arabia (source: CNN).

As Mohammed bin Salman ascended to the throne and powerful man in the state, Khashoggi quickly realized that the Crown Prince was taking the Saudi power circles and barely allowing opposition. Afraid of arrest, Khashoggi went to voluntary exile in the US where he wrote for the Whashington Post. Khashoggi repeatedly criticized the policies of Crown Prince Salman.

In particular, the devastating military intervention in Yemen and the blockade against the Gulf of Qatar. However, in March he also praised the crown prince for his domestic reforms. However, Khashoggi also criticizes the Crown Prince for not allowing public debate and arresting or disappearing critics. When Khashoggi entered the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul, he could not have recognized the danger to his life. He remained suspicious nevertheless. Khashoggi informed both the Turkish authorities and his fiancée that he wanted to pick up documents for his upcoming wedding from the Saudi consulate.

Erdogan announces that he plans to publish the evidence of the world public for the killing of Khashoggi.