Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee sues Saudi Crown Prince

The fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggii is suing Saudi Arabia's crown prince.

She and a human rights group Khashoggi founded filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court on Tuesday (October 21), accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of ordering the journalist's murder.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against the crown prince and 20 other Saudis and risks raising tensions between Washington and Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia is already in the spotlight for its poor human rights record, as well as its role in the seemingly intractable war in Yemen.

Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi hit squad back in 2018, after he entered the Kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

He was there to obtain papers he needed to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.

Khashoggi was a well known U-S based journalist who had written critical pieces about Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The lawsuit accuses MbS and the other Saudis of carrying out a plot to 'permanently silence Mr Khashoggi.'

It says the Kingdom was worried about Khashoggi using his organisation, Democracy for the Arab World Now, as a platform to bring about political change.

The suit falls under a law allowing U.S. court actions against foreign officials over allegations of involvement in torture or extrajudicial killings.

The Saudi embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

But the crown prince has previously denied ordering Khashoggi's murder.