Indonesia: Absentee funeral prayer held for Khashoggi

By Hayati Nupus and Rhany Chairunissa Rufinaldo

JAKARTA (AA) - At least 600 people performed a funeral prayer in absentia for the slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Jakarta's Abu Bakar Ash Shiddiq Mosque on Friday.

Sheikh Yusuf Abdul Ghani, a Saudi imam who was on a visit to Indonesia as part of a humanitarian relief organization, led the prayer.

"We will perform funeral prayer for the martyred Jamal Khashoggi. He was killed very unjustly," said Abdul Ghani.

He said similar prayers would also be held at the Nabawi Mosque in Madina in Saudi Arabia after Friday prayers.

"We pray for him to get ease, for Allah to forgive his sins and make those who killed him pay the price," he added.

Khashoggi, a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, was killed Oct. 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

After weeks of denying any involvement in the crime, Saudi Arabia later admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate but claimed the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of any plot to murder the journalist.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor’s office announced it had charged 11 out of 21 suspects in relation to the murder, seeking the death penalty for five of the suspects.