Washington to rename street in front of Saudi embassy after Jamal Khashoggi

The street in front of the embassy of Saudi Arabia will be called “Jamal Khashoggi Way,” after the Washington city council voted to honour the Saudi journalist murdered by government agents.

The council voted unanimously on Tuesday to symbolically name the 213m stretch of New Hampshire Avenue that runs between the embassy and the Watergate complex for Khashoggi, a dissident journalist working for The Washington Post at the time of his murder in Turkey.

“Through his journalism, Jamal Khashoggi was a fierce advocate for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law,” said a council report on the bill.

“By designating the street fronting the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia after Jamal Khashoggi, the district is creating a memorial in his honour that cannot be covered up or repressed,” it said.

Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the Saudi monarchy, was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2, 2018 after travelling there from the US to file paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee.

The killers were a team of men closely connected to the palace of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is accused by Western intelligence of authorising the murder.

The Saudi embassy did not respond to request for comment on the move.

The bill from the council is expected to be signed by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and not meet objection in the US Congress, which reviews all legislation from the US capital city government.

In 2018, Washington named a street outside the Russian embassy in honour of prominent Vladimir Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in Moscow in three years earlier.