Hanan al-Eter, the widow of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has asked the US government and the United Nations to intervene to help her recover her husband’s electronic devices from the Turkish government so she can take legal action, before the statute of limitations expires later this year.
Al-Eter sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, regarding this matter, on January 30, according to what she told Al-Hurra, noting that she feared that Turkey would “bury” the issue in exchange for economic and political benefits that it might obtain from Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi, who had been living in the United States since 2017, entered his country’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, but did not leave before it became clear that he had been killed.
In her letter to Guterres, which was seen by Al-Hurra, Al-Atbar said that she is asking for United Nations assistance in obtaining electronic devices, including two phones, a laptop, and a tablet, belonging to Khashoggi, and that she is the only one who has the legal right to do so as the wife of the late journalist.
She indicated that she had sent a separate, similar letter to the US Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, on September 22.
Al-Eter believes that “these devices will reveal previously undisclosed details about my husband’s murder,” considering that they are “crucial evidence to know the full truth.”
She added, “An investigative report conducted by the Canadian “Citizen Lab”, a Canadian cybersecurity laboratory, revealed in November 2021 that her Android phones had been hacked since the beginning of 2017 and spied on, let alone Jamal, whose devices were certainly hacked as well.
In her interview with Al-Hurra, Al-Eter indicated that she officially asked the Turkish embassy in the US capital, Washington, in December 2021, to obtain these devices, “but the ambassador replied to me that I must travel to Turkey and file a case to obtain them.” Al-Hurra website read this letter.
“I have no money and I fear for my life if I leave the United States, where I have requested political asylum,” she says.
Al-Eter used to work as a flight attendant, before she took up her husband’s case and sought refuge in the United States: “I am the second victim after Jamal. I lost my husband and my career, and now I live in fear of being targeted at any moment. I no longer have a life, and my circle has become exactly five people.”
She added, “It seems that Turkey wants to keep these devices with it to use it as a political and economic card with Saudi Arabia.”
Al-Eter hopes to increase pressure on Turkey by getting help from the United Nations and the US National Intelligence Service.
An American intelligence report concluded, earlier, that the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, agreed to kill Khashoggi, who was writing articles in the Washington Post criticizing the Saudi government, according to a report from Haines’ office that was declassified in February 2021. The report also mentioned The names of 18 other people involved in his death.
Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for the office of the United Nations Secretary-General, told NBC News that they had received al-Eter’s letter and that it was “now under study,” while the office of the US Director of National Intelligence refused to respond, according to the network.