Riyadh, Apr 2 : The four children of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the US-based Saudi Arabian dissident and contributing columnist for The Washington Post, receive each month at least $10,000 apiece from Saudi authorities in the wake of their father’s murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year, and have also been given estates in the kingdom worth millions more,officials said on Tuesday.
According to Saudi officials, Khashoggi’s children ? two sons and two daughters ? were presented with houses in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, worth around $4 million each, adding that the estates were likely to be later put on sale.
Moreover, the officials believe that each of Khashoggi’s children may additionally receive tens of millions of dollars as compensation after the trial on their father’s suspected murderers.
Some of the officials said that the payments were partially aimed at making sure that the journalist’s family would continue to avoid making harsh comments against Saudi Arabia following the tragedy.
Another official, however, refuted the idea, saying that it was a common practice in the kingdom to financially help the families of victims of violent crimes.
A former Saudi official also said that the payments to Khashoggi’s children were a way of acknowledging that “a big injustice has been done.”
Khashoggi, who was a well-known critic of Saudi policies, went missing last October after he entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey’s Istanbul.
Agencies
