Istanbul: The Turkish fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Monday demanded that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud be "punished without delay" over the murder.
"This will not only bring the justice we have been seeking.... but it could also prevent similar acts recurring. If the Crown Prince is not punished, it will forever endanger us all and be a stain on our humanity," Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz added.
In the statement, Cengiz, a Turkish academic researcher, made an appeal to world leaders to distance themselves from the Crown Prince and impose sanctions on the Kingdom.
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"Starting with the (US President Joe) Biden Administration, it is vital for all world leaders to ask themselves if they are prepared to shake hands... I urge everyone to put their hands on their hearts and campaign to punish the Crown Prince."
Cengiz's statement comes three days after a declassified US intelligence report released on February 26 assessed that the Crown Prince approved an operation to "capture or kill" Saudi Khashoggi in 2018.
"We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," the report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said.
Saudi Arabia has rejected the report.
Khashoggi, the 59-year-old prominent journalist known to have covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rise of the late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was killed by a team of Saudi agents during a visit to the Kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, to obtain papers he needed in order to marry Cengiz.