Too hot to handle
It’s not the grim details about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that make The Dissident so chilling. There are plenty of those in the riveting two-hour documentary, which examines the 2018 killing of the Washington Post columnist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to pick up documents allowing him to marry Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz, who waited outside.
Khashoggi was sedated, killed and dismembered by a 15-strong team of Saudi agents. His remains have never been found. But the disquieting factors aren’t just in the forensic investigation of what happened. Khashoggi’s state-sponsored assassination and its attempted cover-up are all part of the kingdom’s campaign to coerce and silence the dissident voices of exiled citizens.
Khashoggi’s murder is at the centre of a film
