Loved ones mourn Khashoggi after Riyadh seeks to execute 5 suspects
JEDDAH/ISTANBUL: Family and friends of Jamal Khashoggi said funeral prayers in Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Friday for the slain Saudi journalist.
The Saudi public prosecutor said on Thursday it would seek the death penalty for five suspects in the murder inside the country’s Istanbul consulate on October 2.
Tens of thousands of worshippers at Mecca’s Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Khashoggi’s hometown, joined in prayers for the deceased, though the imams did not name him.
In Istanbul, mourners raised their hands in prayer outside Fatih Mosque. An imam recited Quranic verses under a tent set up to protect against the rain, and Khashoggi’s friends eulogised him.
The decision to hold prayer services in the absence of a body suggests the family does not expect it to be recovered.
Khashoggi’s son, Salah, met the king and crown prince in Riyadh last month to receive condolences along with other relatives. He then departed for Washington after a travel ban was lifted and told CNN on November 5 that he wanted to bury his father in Medina with the rest of the family.
“We just need to make sure that he rests in peace,” Salah said. “Until now, I still can’t believe that he’s dead. It’s not sinking in with me emotionally.”
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish researcher who had waited outside the Istanbul consulate for hours on the day he was killed and alerted the authorities and the media when he never left the building, called last week for Muslims around the world to perform the funeral prayer for him.
On Thursday, she tweeted a selfie of Khashoggi outside the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina mosque, writing: “Dear Jamal.. rest in peace. We will meet in heaven inshallah (God willing)..!”
— Reuters