<p class="title">Dozens of people on Friday paid homage to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a symbolic funeral in Istanbul where the 59-year-old Washington Post contributor was killed last month.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In the absence of a body, the crowd gathered in front of an empty place traditionally reserved for the coffin at Fatih mosque, AFP journalists reported.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Supporters from the newly-formed Jamal Khashoggi Friends Association also attended.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership, was last seen entering the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2. Turkish officials say he was strangled and his body dismembered.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We decided to hold the prayers as we are convinced that his body will never be found," Fatih Oke, executive director of the Turkish-Arab Media Association (TAM) of which Khashoggi was a member, told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The ceremony which took place under rain, "is a message delivered to the world to say that the murder will not go unpunished and that justice will be served," said Ibrahim Pekdemir, an Istanbul resident who attended.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Saudi prosecutors on Thursday announced indictments against 11 people and said a total of 21 individuals were in custody in connection with the killing.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But they exonerated the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of involvement in the murder.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Yasin Aktay, a close friend of Khashoggi and advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strongly criticised the Saudi version of events.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"They want us to believe that the killers themselves made the decision to assassinate Jamal Khashoggi, we do not believe in this story," he said after the prayer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We will continue to ask who are the true contractors" of the murder.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Turkey has insisted it was a premeditated killing.</p>
<p class="title">Dozens of people on Friday paid homage to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a symbolic funeral in Istanbul where the 59-year-old Washington Post contributor was killed last month.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In the absence of a body, the crowd gathered in front of an empty place traditionally reserved for the coffin at Fatih mosque, AFP journalists reported.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Supporters from the newly-formed Jamal Khashoggi Friends Association also attended.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership, was last seen entering the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2. Turkish officials say he was strangled and his body dismembered.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We decided to hold the prayers as we are convinced that his body will never be found," Fatih Oke, executive director of the Turkish-Arab Media Association (TAM) of which Khashoggi was a member, told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The ceremony which took place under rain, "is a message delivered to the world to say that the murder will not go unpunished and that justice will be served," said Ibrahim Pekdemir, an Istanbul resident who attended.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Saudi prosecutors on Thursday announced indictments against 11 people and said a total of 21 individuals were in custody in connection with the killing.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But they exonerated the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of involvement in the murder.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Yasin Aktay, a close friend of Khashoggi and advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strongly criticised the Saudi version of events.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"They want us to believe that the killers themselves made the decision to assassinate Jamal Khashoggi, we do not believe in this story," he said after the prayer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We will continue to ask who are the true contractors" of the murder.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Turkey has insisted it was a premeditated killing.</p>