Washington, (IANS) The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi issued an emotional appeal for the return of their father’s body, in their first interview since he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October.

Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi, who called their father “courageous, generous and very brave”, told CNN on Sunday night they endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death.

“I really hope that whatever happened wasn’t painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death,” Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told the news channel during a sit-down interview in here with his brother, Salah, 35.

Without their father’s body, the brothers said that their family was unable to grieve or find closure.

“All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family,” Salah said.

“I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon.”

Authorities in Turkey, who believe that Khashoggi was murdered by a hit squad sent from Riyadh, were still searching for the journalist’s remains.

Last week, the chief prosecutor’s office said Khashoggi’s body was dismembered after he was strangled, while the Washington Post reported investigators were looking into the theory that the body was dissolved in acid.

The Saudi Royal Palace has denied any knowledge of the body’s whereabouts.

Abdullah and Salah told CNN that their father had been misunderstood and intentionally misrepresented for political reasons.

“Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone,” Salah said, describing the late Washington Post columnist as a genuine, happy person and an “amazing” father.

“I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don’t agree with.

“Public opinion is important… But my fear is that it’s being over politicized. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth,” he added.

According to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times, Khashoggi was labelled as a Muslim Brotherhood sympathiser and a dangerous Islamist in phone calls the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had with Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, and John Bolton, National Security Adviser.

“It’s just labels and people not doing their homework properly, and reading his article and going in depth. It’s easier to stick a label on him,” Abdullah said, when asked about the Muslim Brotherhood claim.

Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied: “As a moderate man who has common values with everyone… A man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential.

“Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through.”

Reflecting on their father’s career as a journalist, the brothers said their father was “like a rock and roll star” when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia.

Salah, the eldest sibling, has been made the principal family point of contact by the Saudi government. Abdullah, who lives in the United Arab Emirates was the last of the slain journalist’s children to see him alive.

They have two sisters, Noha, 27 and Razan, 25.

Noumea (New Caledonia) Voters in the French Pacific territory here have rejected a bid for independence prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say that it showed “confidence in the French republic”.

“I have to tell you how proud I am that we have finally passed this historic step together,” Macron added.

Final results showed that 56.4 per cent chose to remain part of France while 43.6 per cent voted to leave — a tighter result than some polls had predicted.

Turnout was about 81 per cent in this island that is one of UN’s 17 “non-self governing territories” where the process of decolonisation has not been completed.

The vote was promised in a 1988 deal that put an end to a violent campaign for independence, the BBC reported.

Although the referendum passed peacefully but some unrest was reported post polls closed. Cars and a shop were set ablaze in the capital, Noumea, media reports said. The high commissioner’s office said some roads were closed by protesters.

New Caledonia has large deposits of nickel, a vital component in manufacturing electronics, and is seen by France as a strategic political and economic asset in the region.

(IANS)

Pakistan’s far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party has called off protests against the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy which have rocked the Muslim-majority South Asian democracy in recent days.

TLP on Friday signed an agreement with the Pakistani government to end the demonstrations, which also involved a number of other religious parties, party spokesperson Zubair Kasuri told Al Jazeera by telephone from Lahore.

According to Kasuri, protesters will be granted legal amnesty under the terms of the deal and Aasia Bibi – the 53-year-old Christian woman at the centre of this week’s furore – will be placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List.

This means she is effectively barred from leaving the country.

The agreement comes after three days of protests sparked by the landmark acquittal of Bibi byPakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

In its judgement, the court declared there were “glaring and stark” contradictions in the case against her.

The original complainant in the case, Muhammad Salim, has filed a review petition against the top court’s verdict, Kasuri said.

But according to Pakistani law, the grounds for review petitions are extremely narrow and such appeals are seldom upheld, meaning the court’s acquittal of Bibi is likely to stand.

Bibi had been on death row for eight years following her arrest in the central Pakistani village of Ithan Wali over an argument with two Muslim women, who refused to drink water from the same vessel as her due to her religion.

The women accused her of having insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad during the altercation, a charge Bibi has consistently denied.

Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in Pakistan, where the country’s strict laws prescribe a mandatory death penalty for some forms of the crime.

Increasingly, blasphemy allegations have led to murders and mob lynchings, with at least 74 people killed in such violence since 1990, acccording to media tally.

Aljazeera