The fiancé of murdered Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi condemned the players who chose to tee it up at LIV Golf’s inaugural event.

LIV Golf, a series fronted by retired golf great Greg Norman, drew several prominent PGA Tour players to its first event despite the financial backing it received from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The fund is overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, — so stars like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and others are under scrutiny for taking lucrative contracts to participate in the inaugural despite Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses.

Since LIV Golf is bankrolled by Salman’s organization, much of the controversy revolves around the fact U.S. intelligence assessed years ago that the crown prince approved the plot to have Khashoggi murdered at the Saudi embassy in Turkey. USA TODAY reached out to Khashoggi’s fiance, Hatice Cengiz, for her thoughts, and she called for every LIV participant to be banned from golf’s four majors — The Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the British Open.

“If they still carry on and play as if everything is normal, then they should be banned from playing in the world’s major tournaments,’’ Cengiz said. “This will show that there are consequences for supporting murderers, and it will show the murderers that they are not escaping justice.”

The LIV players have been suspended by the PGA Tour, but the Tour does not control golf’s four majors. The U.S. Open begins on Thursday in Massachusetts, and the United States Golf Association, which runs that tournament, has said it will allow those who have signed with LIV Golf to compete. The organizations which oversee the other majors have, for the time being, stayed mum.

Mickelson and Johnson have acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s transgressions throughout the controversy, but since they’ve defended their involvement with LIV Golf, Cengiz told USA TODAY “If the players and organizers say they oppose human rights violations, they should act on that. Otherwise their words are empty — only said to try to make themselves look better and not to change anything in Saudi Arabia.”

“They should be insisting on justice for Jamal and the countless persons targeted and abused in the Kingdom,” she said, “and they should not be participating in sports paid for by the very abusers.”

The post Jamal Khashoggi’s Widow Calls for Golf’s Majors to Ban Phil Mickelson, Saudi Tour Players: ‘There Are Consequences for Supporting Murderers’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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