As pressure on Saudi Arabia grows, Jamal Khashoggi has achieved his life’s mission | Jonathan Freedland

This single death has captured more attention than the killing of thousands by the regime. At last, it may be held to account

In death he is achieving his life’s work. Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi patriot and reformer, whose journalism helped expose the reality of Saudi Arabia and the cosseted, hypocritical relationship the kingdom enjoys with the west. Through his brutal, pitiless death, he has succeeded more effectively in that mission than he could ever have imagined.

The brightest light shone by the dissident journalist through his murder is, of course, on the morally repugnant nature of the regime that rules the nation he fled. The nauseating details of his killing, according to Turkish leaks – the bone saw; the instruction from the lead limb-chopper, a doctor, to his colleagues to put on headphones and listen to music to distract themselves from the gruesomeness of their task; the hasty repaint of the walls of the Istanbul consulate – confirm what we already knew. The House of Saud is itself soaked in blood.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2yOkinB