WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 18 (DPI) – Jamal Khashoggi’s most recent – and likely final – post on WashingtonPost.com is a plaintive call for a free and independent press in the Arab world, a place where old, harsh and authoritarian traditions still define most of life.

And it was that cold-blooded authoritarianism that caught up with Khashoggi two weeks ago, when he walked into a Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never came out.  Reports from Turkish officials say he was tortured, murdered and dismembered – becoming the latest martyr to free speech in our turbulent times.

Khashoggi’s Wikipedia page has not yet posted a date of death.

Readers posted their own tributes to Khashoggi, a 59-year-old journalist who wrote extensively about the Arab world – and Saudi Arabia in particular – from safe confines of the West, where he lived. But Khashoggi – whose family has longtime ties to the Saudi Royal Family – wasn’t safe from the unaccountable gangster rulers, the likes of which run so many countries today, when he returned to seek a marriage license at a diplomatic mission in Istanbul.

The most popular among more than 1300 comments on WashingtonPost.com today:

Thank you Mr. Khashoggi for your bravery in speaking truth to power. And damn you Mr. Trump for enabling the killers of this brave and decent man.

There’s a lump in my throat as I write this. All that this good man wanted for his people and their neighbors was tolerance and kindness by their rulers, and for people to have the ability to speak words (mere words, just sounds!) without fear about safety to their persons.  For that, the savages sawed him up alive.
Bastards.

Sadness. This is the overarching emotion I feel after reading this final post from Khashoggi.  May his death not be in vain, and his legacy be that of an appreciation of the vital importance of free speech throughout the world.