Pelin Kaya was bid farewell in a funeral that was held in her home country - Turkey - on Sunday, in the presence of her parents, siblings, friends and relatives.

Her mother and father spoke publicly for the first time with Turkish journalists who were covering the funeral.

"I think that a murderer deliberately crashed and killed her with his car. I trust the Maltese justice, the Turkish justice. I want the murderer to receive the heaviest punishment," her father, İsmet Kaya, told Turkish news organisation Hürriyet.

He said he had last had a video chat with his daughter on the eve of her birthday and recalled her last words: "I love you so much, dad".

Pelin's mother, Çiçek Kaya, who was too distressed to travel to Malta earlier this week, was seen crying over the coffin of her 30-year-old daughter and hugging it, and reportedly said “when a mother loses her baby, that mother is dead too”. 

Pelin's funeral was held in Istanbul, at the Esenkent Martyr Mustafa Hasanoğlu Mosque, after her body was flown from Malta to Turkey on Saturday evening.

Pelin, an interior designer, was walking down Testaferrata Street at 1am on Wednesday after celebrating her 30th birthday, when a car ploughed into her before hitting a petrol station and the Gżira branch of a KFC restaurant. 

A video showed the horrific crash in the early hours of Wednesday and how Jeremie Camilleri, who holds French and Maltese citizenship and has been charged with her murder, strolled away from the vehicle.

Witnesses have said he then threw stones at the victim as she lay on the ground. He is denying the charges.

On Sunday, her father described the last time he saw his daughter when he took her to the airport.

"When I turned and said goodbye at the airport for the last time, she turned maybe 10 or 15 times to wave at me, as if she will never come again," he said in tears.