Dear President Biden: Please don’t break your promise to shun Saudi Arabia

In the days, weeks and years that followed, I watched in horror as my fiance’s killers roamed free. As I fought to go on with my life, President Donald Trump disregarded the calls to hold Jamal’s murderers accountable, and he rewarded them with billions of dollars worth of weapons. Calculating, cold politicians can never be trusted to bring about justice.

As I was on the verge of losing all hope, it was your remarks as you stood on a debate stage in November 2019 that rekindled my drive. You vowed to bring Jamal’s killers to justice. “Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince,” you said, adding you would make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that they are.”

More so than by your pledges to diverge from the Trump administration’s policies and center on human rights and the rule of law, my hope was restored by your genuine decency and empathy.

President Biden, since then, I’ve discovered that we have one thing in common. You understand how it feels to have your future abruptly destroyed by tragedy, just as I do. In 1972, while on their way to buy a Christmas tree, a horrible car crash claimed the lives of your wife and your infant daughter.

I could see how that unbearable suffering influenced your political career. It gave you empathy and the capacity to understand those who had been wronged. I believed that you would be the one to follow your moral compass and do what is right. And on the day of your inauguration, I finally experienced happiness and had hope that I would eventually find justice.

You can imagine how shocked and disappointed I was to learn that you would break your promise and travel to Saudi Arabia to likely meet with the crown prince — the person who U.S. intelligence determined was responsible for ordering Jamal’s murder.

You condemn Russia for persecuting dissidents and committing war crimes in Ukraine. But the Saudis are executing the same horrific human rights abuses. Why are they being given a pass? Is that the price of oil?

At a time when attacks on press freedom are at an all-time high, your visit will tarnish your reputation and send a message to autocrats all over the world that they can imprison, torture or even murder journalists with no repercussions.

President Biden, Jamal would ask you this question if he were still alive: Who will defend freedom, democracy and human rights if the United States doesn’t stand up to tyranny? If you don’t confront those who make a mockery of these fundamental values at a time when the world needs principled leadership now, then when?

President Biden, imagine yourself in my position, trying to move on while knowing that the people who killed your loved one are still free. Imagine the trauma of knowing that what happened to your loved one can and will happen to someone else because the perpetrators know there will be no consequences.

I, along with a countless number of Jamal’s friends, had faith that you would honor your promises. Your visit is not just a betrayal of your promises; it risks emboldening MBS, as the crown prince is known.

President Biden, if you go ahead with this visit, I implore you: Please use it to help those still suffering. Before meeting MBS, demand the release of all wrongfully detained people, such as Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan, the son and brother of U.S. citizens, who has been tortured, disappeared and sentenced to 20 years in prison — all for the crime of anonymously posting satirical tweets.

You can also ask for an end to unlawful travel bans, which have been abused to keep critics trapped inside the country, where their freedom of expression is curtailed. Ask about Loujain al-Hathloul, U.S. resident Aziza al-Yousef, and U.S. citizens Salah al-Haidar and Bader al-Ibrahim, who are all being held captive by travel bans.

President Biden, rather than helping to heal our anguish and sorrow with justice and accountability, this visit will significantly compound our grief and hopelessness. I implore you to cancel your trip and uphold your promise to pursue justice for Jamal.