Funeral prayer to be performed for Khashoggi

RIYADH

A funeral prayer in absentia will be performed for slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Mecca and Medina on Friday.

Salah Khashoggi, son of murdered Washington Post columnist, said on Twitter the prayer will be performed in Medina following the morning prayer, as well as in Mecca following the Friday prayer.

Salah said earlier that condolences for his father will be accepted from Friday to Sunday in Jeddah.

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.

His body has yet to be returned to his family, which has been requesting its return, amid reports that it was chemically dissolved.

Reporting by Gulsen Topcu by Jeyhun Aliyev