United States – The sons of the slain journalist – Jamaal Khashoggi – rubbished the conspiracy theories being played by the international media against their father’s death in an interview to CNN on Sunday.
In the first ever media interview in English, Abdullah Khashoggi and Saleh Khashoggi spoke candidly about their father’s disappearance and death from Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.
“Public opinion is important, but my fear is that it’s being over politicized. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth,” said Salah.
“I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don’t agree with,” he added.
Salah’s brother Abdullah said, “I really hope that whatever happened wasn’t painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death.”
“There’s a lot of ups and downs. We’re trying to get the story – bits and pieces of the story to complete the whole picture,” he said.
“It’s confusing and difficult,” he added.
Salah expressed his desire to bury his father’s body in al-Baqi in Madina, he said, “all what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi in Medina with the rest of his family.”
When asked about how his father’s legacy has to be remembered, Saleh replied, “Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through.”
Speaking about his meeting with the King and the crown prince, he said, “The King has stressed that everybody will be brought to justice. And I have faith in that.”
After Jamaal Khashoggi went missing from the consulate, it led international media channels to run a full-blown smearing campaign against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, however, Turkish Justice Minister – Abdulhameed Gul – stressed the point to abide by the official investigations rather believing in the media-leaks that are subjective to strain the relations between Saudi Arabia and its allies.
