Fiancée of missing Saudi journalist appeals to Trump for help

The fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing last week, asked President Trump to help find her soon-to-be husband in an op-ed Tuesday.

“I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal’s disappearance,” Hatice Cengiz wrote in The Washington Post, a paper for which Khashoggi had been a contributor.

Khashoggi, who has written a number of pieces critical of the Saudi government, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday, and has not been seen since.

{mosads}Cengiz said in her piece that Khashoggi was “somewhat concerned that he could be in danger” when he decided to enter the consulate to obtain documents for their marriage.

“Yet he noted that there was no warrant for his arrest in his native country,” she wrote in her op-ed.

“Although his opinions had angered certain people, he said, the tensions between himself and Saudi Arabia did not amount to hate, grudges or threats.”

A Turkish official told The New York Times on Tuesday that Turkish security officials believe Saudi agents killed Khashoggi and dismembered his body.

“Although my hope slowly fades away each passing day, I remain confident that Jamal is still alive,” Cengiz wrote in her piece Tuesday. “As an individual who believes that life and death are in the hands of God, I pray to God alone for Jamal’s safe return.”

Trump said Monday that he is concerned about Khashoggi’s disappearance and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saudi Arabia to support an investigation into what happened to the journalist. 

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in an interview last Friday that Saudi officials have “nothing to hide” and assented to a search of the consulate.

The country has denied any wrongdoing.