Amid international outrage over Saudi Arabia’s role in the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi media outlets are spreading a ludicrous conspiracy theory that Khashoggi has a “fake fiancé.” This appears to be an attempt to discredit accusations from Turkish and American intelligence sources that he was killed after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Turkey.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to retrieve documents certifying his divorce from his ex-wife in order to allow him to remarry. His Turkish fiancé, Hatice Cengiz, told media she waited for him outside for hours but he never returned.

Turkish intelligence believes Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the consulate. (The Saudis claim Khashoggi left the consulate on the same day he visited, although Turkey says security camera footage contradicts that claim.)

Now, some Saudi news outlets and social media influencers have begun floating conspiratorial theories and other baseless claims to suggest the whole incident is a frame-up to make Saudi Arabia look bad. And Cengiz is a target of the false claims.

“These conspiracy theories are nonsense and a dangerous distraction from finding out the truth of what happened to Jamal,” Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of communications for the Washington Post, said in an email to BuzzFeed News.



Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al Arabiya published a conspiratorial post this week describing Cengiz as Khashoggi’s “self-claimed fiancé.” The article suggested that Cengiz is not actually in a relationship with Khashoggi but rather some sort of agent doing the bidding of hostile foreign forces. The only evidence presented for her alleged international ties were tweets she had sent in the past that were critical of Saudi Arabia.



The bizarre conspiracy theory was taken one step further on Twitter. An account claiming to be a fact-checking organization called Middle East Guardians published a thread purporting to show that a photo of Khashoggi and his fiancé was doctored to add Cengiz after the fact. The account claimed to have done a forensic investigation of the photo to reach that conclusion. Middle East Guardians has only existed on Twitter since September.



A photo forensics expert who reviewed the Twitter thread told BuzzFeed News it was “bogus analysis” that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

