2023-12-22 00:40:09
The United States has granted political asylum to Hanan Elatr, the widow of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in 2018 inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in the city of Istanbul, a case of which the CIA pointed out to the crown prince, Mohamed bin Salmán, as ultimately responsible.
In his application, Elatr argued that his life was in danger if he returned to his native Egypt or the United Arab Emirates. Specifically, she indicated that the Egyptian authorities mistreated her and her family, going so far as to confiscate her passports, due to her relationship with the journalist, according to ‘The Washington Post’.
Likewise, she stated that the United Arab Emirates authorities detained and interrogated her during a stopover she made in Dubai in April 2018, four months before the informant’s murder, at which time they seized two mobile phones and placed Pegasus software on them.
The Saudi prince, implicated
Elatr already filed a personal injury lawsuit in June against the Israeli company NSO Group, responsible for the espionage program, and although the company did not comment, its former director Shalev Hulio denied at the time that in no case was Pegasus used to spy. to the journalist through his wife’s phone.
In his lawsuit, he sought damages and argued that the company violated federal laws that strictly prohibit cell phone hacking. After Khashoggi’s murder, Elatr ended up under house arrest in Dubai, lost his job and went into hiding for 17 months in Virginia, living with acquaintances.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, directly implicated the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Bin Salman, in the murder of the journalist. However, Bin Salman escaped another lawsuit in November 2022, the one filed by Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, given her diplomatic immunity as head of state of a foreign country.
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