Khashoggi’s wife asks U.S. and U.N. for help recovering husband’s devices from Turkey

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s widow has requested the U.S. authorities and United Nations to intervene and assist her get well her husband’s digital gadgets from the Turkish authorities so she will be able to take authorized motion earlier than the statute of limitations runs out later this yr, in line with letters, papers and different particulars about her efforts shared with NBC Information.

It’s been greater than a yr since Hanan Elatr Khashoggi first requested the laptop computer, pill and two cellphones of the Washington Publish columnist who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and he or she’s now hoping to extend stress on Turkey to conform by getting assist from Director of Nationwide Intelligence Avril Haines and U.N. Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres.

The letters, despatched in November and January say that she believes the gadgets “will reveal beforehand undisclosed particulars about my husband’s homicide which can be crucial to figuring out the complete fact.”

“I’ve the best to obtain all of his possessions, notably now as I’m embarking on authorized motion in the US in opposition to all events answerable for my husband’s homicide,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi wrote in each letters, naming NSO Group, an Israeli cyber-intelligence agency, and the Saudi and Emirati governments as deliberate targets of future lawsuits.

She stated Turkey recovered the gadgets shortly after her husband’s demise and wrote in her letters that her private appeals to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the telephones, laptop computer and pill “haven’t been honored.”

Erdogan’s workplace and the Turkish Embassy in Washington didn’t reply to a request for remark. The Turkish Embassy despatched Hanan Elatr Khashoggi’s lawyer a letter in December 2021 that advised she ship “her request to the respective Turkish courts by way of acceptable authorized channels.”

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who’s an Emirati, stated she can’t pursue authorized motion in Turkey as a result of she is within the U.S. below political asylum, doesn’t have a passport and doesn’t have the mandatory funds.

Jamal Khashoggi’s gadgets are “so vital and so very important,” she stated in an interview — some extent emphasised by her lawyer Randa Fahmy — to figuring out what led to Jamal Khashoggi’s demise and holding all accountable events to account.

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi found in November 2021 that cyber-intelligence agency NSO Group’s Pegasus spy ware had been put in on her two Android telephones with out her information when she was within the United Arab Emirates months earlier than her husband’s demise. That discovery was confirmed by a digital forensic evaluation carried out by Citizen Lab, reviewed by NBC Information and first reported by The Washington Post. She believes this similar spy ware could also be on her husband’s gadgets as properly.

It was the spy ware’s discovery that began the clock on her skill to take authorized motion. She has two years to file her case since its detection, in line with the Laptop Fraud and Abuse Act. That window ends this November.

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi contends that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and NSO Group’s alleged surveillance of the couple all contributed to the demise of Jamal Khashoggi and he or she intends to file three separate lawsuits in opposition to them in U.S. courts. She believes that discovering comparable spy ware on her husband’s gadgets will assist her instances. 

“It isn’t solely Saudi Arabia that’s responsible,” she advised NBC Information, referring to her husband’s demise. “There are lots of who’re responsible, and we have now a proper to know and convey them to justice.”

Saudi Arabia and the UAE didn’t reply to requests for remark. NSO Group has denied any involvement.

“NSO has repeatedly acknowledged that our know-how was not related in any manner with the heinous homicide of Jamal Khashoggi or any of his relations, together with Hanan Elatr,” an NSO Group spokesperson stated.

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi’s letter to Haines was despatched to the director of nationwide intelligence’s chief of employees Charles Luftig by way of electronic mail on Nov. 2, 2022, and he confirmed receipt of the message a day later, in line with emails reviewed by NBC Information. The letter was initially despatched to the company in September, however she didn’t obtain a reply.

Fahmy, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi’s lawyer, stated that by happenstance she bumped into Haines on the State Division on Nov. 4 on the swearing-in ceremony for the U.S. ambassador to Morocco, Puneet Talwar. Haines advised her that she had learn the letter and was discussing the request with the Justice Division, in line with Fahmy.

“I stated, ‘We actually want these gadgets,’” the lawyer recalled. “She stated, ‘You’re going to get a proper response, however I’ll inform you that I’m speaking to the Justice Division if a request like this may be made.’”

Fahmy stated she had not heard again from the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence since November. A spokesperson for the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence declined to remark. The Justice Division didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The letter to the U.N. secretary-general’s workplace was despatched on Jan. 30. Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesperson for the workplace, confirmed that they had obtained it and stated that “it’s being studied now.”

‘I’ve to proceed and convey justice’

The primary authorized case Hanan Elatr Khashoggi stated she intends to file in U.S. court docket is in opposition to Saudi Arabia with felony and civil claims over the killing of her husband, regardless of the Biden administration’s choice that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sovereign immunity in his position as Saudi Arabia’s prime minister.

The Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence beforehand concluded that the crown prince had permitted the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Publish crucial of the Saudi authorities, in line with a report from Haines’ workplace that she declassified in February 2021. The report additionally named 18 different people concerned in his demise. 

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi and Fahmy consider that they’ve a robust standing to construct a case and intention to focus on these named people, not simply the crown prince. Whereas Fahmy admitted “there’s nothing we will do concerning the Biden administration findings on sovereign immunity,” she believes there are different avenues for the 2 to discover and famous that “there are exceptions to sovereign immunity” that she is prepared to check. 

The Biden administration has not imposed any extreme penalties on Saudi Arabia for Jamal Khashoggi’s demise although the president has stated he’ll maintain the nation and its leaders to account for the journalist’s killing. The Nationwide Safety Council — which had beforehand met with Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who disclosed her efforts to get well her husband’s gadgets within the assembly — didn’t reply to a request for remark. 

The second case would goal the United Arab Emirates, the place Hanan Elatr Khashoggi as soon as resided and labored as a flight attendant. She believes they put in the NSO Group spy ware on her gadgets when she was detained by UAE intelligence brokers on the Dubai Worldwide Airport in April 2018. She gave them her telephones and was blindfolded, cuffed and interrogated at a separate location about her husband, she stated.

She believes the Emiratis are implicated in Jamal Khashoggi’s demise as a result of they could have supplied monitoring info by way of an intelligence sharing settlement the nation had with Saudi Arabia.

“They misused this to trace Jamal by way of me,” Hana Elatr Khashoggi stated. “They knew how very important that relationship between me and Jamal was as a result of we had been sharing every thing.” 

Lastly, she intends to sue NSO Group. She and Fahmy consider that the identical spy ware may very well be on Jamal Khashoggi’s cellphone and that NSO Group was concerned within the software program’s repairs on all their gadgets.

The agency is already dealing with different authorized battles, because the Supreme Court docket allowed Meta to pursue a lawsuit in opposition to NSO Group final month for allegedly putting in spy software program on its WhatsApp messaging app to surveil quite a few individuals, together with journalists and activists, in line with court docket paperwork. NSO Group has stated it put in the software program on the behalf of an unnamed overseas authorities. 

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi stated that her life has not simply modified due to her husband’s demise — “my life is completed.” However that view has stored her devoted to her husband’s case.

She misplaced her profession as a flight attendant, her social circle within the U.S. includes 5 individuals and he or she is in fixed concern for her life. At her new job in Washington, D.C., she earns simply sufficient to pay for a room and to feed herself.

“I’m the second sufferer after Jamal,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi stated. “Jamal, he misplaced his life and I misplaced my life as properly, however I can discuss him and this offers me braveness. I’ve to proceed and convey justice to him.”

CORRECTION (Feb. 8, 2023, 12:20 p.m. ET): A earlier model of this text misstated Hanan Elatr Khashoggi’s citizenship. She is Egyptian, not Emirati.