Months of repression had already convinced many they should think twice before speaking out

As each new revelation about the disappearance of the Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi reverberated around the world, there were few outward signs in his homeland that anything was amiss. Outsized images of a smiling King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, gazed down on passing motorists from Riyadh’s glass tower blocks as normal.

In the glittering lobby of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh – previously the world’s most opulent prison during the detention of more than 30 of the kingdom’s most powerful princes and business leaders – guests chattered beneath a cluster of crystal globes that hung from the ceiling, their glow reflected in the polished marble floor. An eerie sense of a need for business as usual permeated throughout the capital and beyond.

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Yet late on Friday night, the Saudi Press Agency said that Khashoggi was killed when a fight with 18 suspected individuals at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul “led to his death”. The statement added that the 18 arrested would be brought “to justice by referring them to the competent courts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”. The Saudi public prosecutor’s office also announced the sacking of a top intelligence chief, an influential advisor to the crown prince and other top officials, in a purge following the incident.

In Riyadh and Jeddah, conversations about Khashoggi were conducted in hushed tones, often using only his first name to disguise the topic or mentioning only a “political crisis”. Some Saudis previously willing to offer cautious criticism of the political crackdown declined to speak at all.

Months of repression of critical voices, including the arrests of clerics, women who had opposed the driving ban, human rights activists and journalists, had convinced many that they should think twice before speaking out, even in private. But details of Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged dismemberment inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul have sent a fresh chill through the intellectual and elite Saudi circles that Khashoggi once mixed in.

A paranoid quiet offline was matched only by fierce online battles, notably on Twitter, where many Saudis decried developments in the case drip-fed by Ankara as “fake news” created by western media outlets and enemy powers.

“What they’re saying is ridiculous,” one woman who asked not to be identified for her own safety said of the denials. “But the majority believe it. Until very recently, I believed it … we are sheltered in various ways here,” she added.

“You know, really, I don’t want to know,” the woman said in reference to the truth about Khashoggi. “As this means a lot of things on a bigger scale. There’s a part of me that wants to believe it’s not true.”

As a political crisis raged abroad, the Saudi Arabian press repeatedly claimed foreign powers were threatening their country and cooking up rumours intended to tarnish the its carefully crafted image, often with fleeting mention of the basis for these alleged attacks save for a line concerning Khashoggi’s “disappearance”.

Several outlets published a reminder from Saudi Arabia’s public prosecution that “sharing or spreading rumours or fake news that might affect public order and security is considered cybercrime punishable by five-year imprisonment and a 3m riyal [£610,500] fine”.

The Saudi Gazette’s front-page headline on 14 October read “Lies and conspiracies”, followed underneath by the words “Enemies of kingdom behind Khashoggi’s abduction”. The next day its front page proclaimed “Enough is enough”, a headline that also topped an opinion piece on the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya website. The Gazette later denied that the Khashoggi family had called for an international investigation, adding: “Their confidence in the Saudi government is limitless.”

The arrival of the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, in Riyadh on Tuesday morning initially provoked a ripple of concern among Saudis who had been closely watching developments in the case. The visit appeared to be a sign that the world’s attention remained fixed on the kingdom and its lack of answers about Khashoggi’s whereabouts.

Khashoggi’s former newspaper al-Watan praised the “calm diplomacy” of the Saudi authorities and their handling of the case. One op-ed writer proposed the formation of a national public relations body to “strengthen the image of the kingdom”. Like most outlets, al-Watan printed only the official Saudi Press Agency’s coverage of Pompeo’s visit, which it said was a victory for relations between the “brotherly countries”. Okaz, one of Saudi Arabia’s most popular daily newspapers, ran the headline “Crown Prince: Riyadh and Washington are strong allies” on its front page.

This message resonated with some Saudis, including a recent graduate who studied in the US and who also cannot be named for her safety. “I think Saudi Arabia and America have a strong relationship,” she said. “What’s happening now is all about social media and television channels trying to break that relationship. Everyone is saying that the United States is protecting Saudi Arabia and this country should pay for that. But it’s a mutual relationship.”

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Despite reassurances from the White House, tensions continued to affect the Future Investment Initiative conference, billed as “Davos in the desert” and scheduled to take place from 23 October in Riyadh. Attendees such as the International Monetary Fund chief, Christine Lagarde, the head of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, and the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, all declared they would not attend the event.

The public refusal by Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber, to attend because of the Khashoggi case provoked an online campaign in the Gulf to boycott the ride-hailing app, later backed by the foreign minister of neighbouring Bahrain. The Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund is a major investor in Uber.

Bandar al-Toaimi, the head of communications for the Saudi Industrial Property Authority, which seeks to attract international firms to Saudi industrial parks, was unconcerned by the number of international attendees who had pulled out of the conference. “I think this is a political issue and I think the government is dealing with it,” he said. “For us, we’re looking for investors to come.”