Born in Medina in 1958, Jamal Khashoggi was once close to the inner circles of the Saudi royal family, where he earned his reputation as a reformist by pushing the boundaries of critically questioning Saudi’s regional and domestic policies.

The young Khashoggi studied journalism at Indiana University and began his career as a correspondent for the English language Saudi Gazette newspaper. He reported for the London-based and Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat daily. He also spent eight years writing for the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.

Khashoggi was best known for coverage of the events of Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait and the Middle East in the 1990s. In 1999, Khashoggi became the deputy editor for the Saudi-run newspaper Arab News, and remained in that position for four years. His next position as the editor-in-chief of the Al-Watan paper barely lasted two months before he was dismissed from the post without explanation in 2003.

The journalist then became a media adviser to Prince Turki bin Faisal, who was the former head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate and served as the Saudi ambassador to the US from 2005 until the end of 2006. Khashoggi was reinstated as the editor of Al-Watan in 2007, but was fired again in 2010, for “pushing the boundaries of debate within Saudi society”.

Following the rapid rise through the ranks of Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Khashoggi lent his voice to call out the Crown Prince’s policies at home, particularly after promises of reform were followed by a wave of arrests and repression.

Khashoggi continued to write, and advocate for freedom of speech in his country. During his stay in Washington, DC, he participated in many activities to defend freedoms and rights. In his role as contributor to the Opinions page for The Washington Post, Khashoggi became more vocal about his criticism of MBS, likening him to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his last column for the Washington Post, Khashoggi decried lack of press freedom throughout the Arab world, saying “Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate”. On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi flew to Istanbul and entered the Saudi Consulate to obtain documents that would seal his marriage to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. The Saudi admission that he was killed in the consulate has sent shockwaves throughout the world.