The Atlantic

The Strange Case of the Dissident Saudi Journalist Who Disappeared

Jamal Khashoggi hasn’t been seen or heard from since Tuesday, when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Source: Osman Orsal / Reuters

Jamal Khashoggi was under no illusion about what would happen to him if he returned to Saudi Arabia. In a last year in about a wave of detentions in the country, the self-exiled Saudi dissident said he too “could face arrest” if he returned home. Yet that’s essentially what he did when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, with his fiancée; they were reportedly there to obtainpaperwork they needed in order to get married. Khashoggi left his cell phone with her and entered the building at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. “We were trying to marry.”

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