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The widow of slain Washington Publish reporter Jamal Khashoggi has made a name for golfers who’ve competed within the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League’s inaugural occasion to be banned from main tournaments.
Khashoggi was murdered on the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in 2018, with a declassified US intelligence report final yr accusing Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of greenlighting the operation to “seize or kill” the journalist.
With Salman accountable for the Saudi Public Funding Fund that took over Premier League soccer membership Newcastle United final yr and has bankrolled LIV Golf, Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz has spoken out towards the breakaway competitors that has attracted high gamers reminiscent of Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.
A complete of 17 gamers have taken half in LIV Golf’s ongoing 54-hole opening occasion, the place $4 million shall be awarded to the winner.
As a consequence of their rebel, the PGA Tour has suspended them which has led to Cengiz suggesting they need to be banned from taking part in in golf’s main tournaments “in the event that they nonetheless stick with it and play as if all the things is regular”.
“This can present that there are penalties for supporting murderers, and it’ll present the murderers that they aren’t escaping justice,” she claimed to USA At present.
Cengiz’s feedback come on the eve of the US Open, the place the USA Golf Affiliation has already confirmed that every one those that certified for his or her event shall be eligible.
So far, the British Open has not stated whether or not those that took half within the LIV’s occasion can even play their competitors, and neither have The Masters nor the PGA Championship.
For Cengiz, although, who additionally spoke out when the Public Funding Fund was on the cusp of taking up Newcastle United, there may be no leeway.
“If the gamers and organizers say they oppose human rights violations, they need to act on that,” Cengiz stated.
“In any other case their phrases are empty – solely stated to attempt to make themselves look higher and to not change something in Saudi Arabia.
“They need to be insisting on justice for Jamal and the numerous individuals focused and abused within the Kingdom. They usually shouldn’t be taking part in sports activities paid for by the very abusers,” she went on.
Elsewhere, a analysis director on the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), which Khashoggi based, claimed that Mickelson and others such because the LIV’s CEO Greg Norman are being “used to whitewash the crimes of the Saudi authorities”.
“Agreeing to be a part of that is mainly agreeing to assist (the crown prince) rehabilitate his picture within the worldwide stage, within the cultural stage and the sports activities stage,” Abdullah Alaoudh defined.
“And agreeing for use instantly by the Saudi authorities in their very own propaganda to say that they host such occasions, that they will do no matter they need and get away with homicide, actually.”
After its debut on the Centurion Membership concludes this weekend, the LIV will then maintain its second occasion on Portland’s Pumpkin Ridge course from June 30 to July 2.
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