Hanan Khashoggi, the widow of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has pleaded with Norman Foster and other British architects working in Saudi Arabia to bring up the “unfinished business” of her husband’s murder.
In an interview with architecture newspaper Architects’ Journal (AJ), Hanan Khashoggi said that the murder of her husband, which occurred at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, remains unsolved.
She asked architects working in the region to help draw attention to it.
“I tell the architects from the UK: I’m proud that you are helping Saudi Arabia to develop, and this is what Jamal wanted, but please speak to them [Saudi Arabia’s ruling royal family] and remind them there is unfinished business here, which is Jamal,” Hanan Khashoggi said.
There are numerous British architecture studios currently working in Saudi Arabia, including on the controversial Neom development.
Foster + Partners’ founder Norman Foster temporarily suspended himself from Neom’s advisory board following Khashoggi’s murder.
“There is one victim still alive”
In her conversation with AJ, Hanan Khashoggi directly spoke to Foster, saying: “Mr Foster, this case has not been closed. There is one victim still alive, which is me. She didn’t receive any compensation or any official apology, they destroyed her family life. This is me.”
She stated that she “appreciated” Foster’s stance on Neom in 2018, arguing that it shows “he had the ability to tell the crown prince and the Saudi royal family that there is unfinished business here, and they need to finish it”.
Foster’s studio is currently working on a number of projects in the region, including reportedly designing the world’s tallest building in Saudi Arabia, as well as a new airport for the region.
The firm has also designed the country’s pavilion for the Expo 2025 Osaka.
Hanan Khashoggi added that she hopes that UK architects will continue to work in Saudi Arabia, but reiterated that she wants them to raise the “horrible crime” with its rulers.
“I hope UK architects carry and keep their democratic values and that they don’t stop working in Saudi Arabia, because this is what Jamal wanted; he wanted better for his country, for his people,” she said.
“But I want architects to remind the crown prince and the Saudi royal family that there is unfinished business here regarding Jamal because a horrible crime happened to an honest journalist.”
Killing was “an extrajudicial execution”
Jamal Khashoggi – a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia’s ruler, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman – was “brutally slain” inside the consulate in 2018, according to Agnes Callamard, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
Callamard called the killing “an arbitrary and extrajudicial execution for which the State of Saudi Arabia is responsible”.
Saudi Arabia’s deputy public prosecutor Shalaan Shalaan has said that the murder was ordered by the head of a “negotiations team” sent to Turkey by the Saudi deputy intelligence chief, reported the BBC.
According to Shalaan, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman “did not have any knowledge about it”.
In a report last year, human rights organisation ALQST highlighted the environmental and human rights concerns surrounding Saudi mega project Neom in a briefing paper that includes a report on a migrant worker’s death.
Human rights organisation Amnesty has also found that the human rights assessment of the upcoming Saudi World Cup in 2034 “omitted glaring risks”.
The main photograph of Jamal Khashoggi is by Hany Musallam via Shutterstock.
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