On October 2 2018, at 1.14pm local time, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He was never seen again.
Only this week, two and a half years and another president later, has the CIA’s report into his killing been published. It confirms what was widely suspected. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the kidnapping or killing of the exiled journalist.Lockdowns have taken income away from hundreds of Big Issue sellers. Support The Big Issue and our vendors by signing up for a subscription. Behind the headlines is the tragedy of a man, the fiancée he left behind, Hatice Cengiz, and her tireless fight for justice. This story is dramatically told in The Dissident, a new documentary charting how Khashoggi went from being a trusted insider of the Saudi government to one of its biggest critics – and one targeted for assassination.“Jamal’s murder was able to happen because the Saudis didn’t believe that there would be true accountability, and there wasn’t,” says director Bryan Fogel.
Fogel’s previous documentary, Icarus, told the unbelievable inside story of the Russian doping scandal and won him an Oscar. He brings the same commitment and consideration to the even more incredulous story of the life and horrifying death of the 59-year-old Washington Post correspondent.
In uncompromising detail, Fogel’s film outlines what happened when Khashoggi walked into the consulate and, minutes later, was killed. He had access to footage from the Turkish police’s forensic search of the meeting room he was taken to. He has the full, secretly recorded transcripts of his murder, the killers laughing as they sawed up the body.
While this was happening, Cengiz was waiting for Khashoggi outside. He had only gone to the consulate to pick up papers required for their wedding.
“[The Saudis] didn’t believe that they were going to be caught,” Fogel says. “All the measures that they were taking, although they were poorly orchestrated, were designed to get away with it – a body double, sweeping the conflict for bugs two days ahead, dismembering his body, cutting and burning it in an oven. These were all attempts to vanish someone and get away with the crime.”