Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is pleading with Justin Bieber to cancel his upcoming performance in Saudi Arabia.
“This is a unique opportunity to send a powerful message to the world that your name and talent will not be used to restore the reputation of a regime that kills its critics,” Cengiz wrote in The Washington Post.
The Canadian pop star is scheduled to perform at the inaugural Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021 on Dec. 5 along with A$AP Rocky and David Guetta. The night before, Jason Derulo and Tiësto are set to entertain race fans.
The events in Jeddah are sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has a record of ordering horrific human rights abuses. Earlier this year, a U.S. intelligence report said the prince approved the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi.
“Nothing of significance happens in Saudi Arabia without his consent, and certainly not an event as important and flashy as this,” wrote Cengiz. “Your face is even featured on the event’s website with his — the executioner of my fiancé, Jamal.
“I know that you are dedicated to your fans and are traveling to Saudi Arabia on their behalf. However, there are hundreds of Saudis, of all ages, backgrounds and religious beliefs, languishing in prison, punished for merely expressing their opposition to the merciless Saudi dictatorship.”
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Earlier this month, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) published an open letter to Bieber urging him to pull the plug on his concert in “one of the most repressive regimes on Earth.”
According to the HRF, the prince has “spearheaded a brutal crackdown on dissidents, including women’s rights activists and sexual minorities, through arbitrary detention, prosecution, and barbaric methods of execution, such as decapitation, crucifixion, and stoning to death.”
In a segment that aired last month on 60 Minutes, former Saudi intelligence officer Saad Aljabri, who fled to Canada, described Mohammed bin Salman as “a psychopath with no empathy” who “doesn't feel emotion.”
In 2018, bin Salman allegedly sent a six-man team to Ottawa on a mission to kill Aljabri (they were denied entry by Canadian authorities). Aljabri warned Prince Mohammed is “a psychopath, killer, in the Middle East with infinite resources, who poses threat to his people, to the Americans and to the planet.”
For Cengiz, it is more personal.
“Do not sing for the murderers of my beloved Jamal,” she implored Bieber. “Please speak out and condemn his killer.”