One of the suspects in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was arrested in France on Tuesday, December 7 at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, franceinfo learned from a close source, confirming RTL information. The man presented a passport in the name of Khalid Alotaibi, 33. This former member of the Royal Guard of Saudi Arabia was arrested by the border police while he was going to take the plane to Riyadh.
He is suspected of being one of the alleged members of the commando group that assassinated the Saudi journalist at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey, in Istanbul. It was October 2, 2018. This suspect was wanted by Interpol after an arrest warrant issued by Turkey.
This Tuesday evening, checks were still underway to ensure the identity of the person arrested, said a judicial source to Franceinfo. He was placed in judicial detention pending whether or not the public prosecutor’s office decides on his extradition.
“The citizen in question who was arrested has no connection with the case”, wrote this Tuesday evening on Twitter the Embassy of Saudi Arabia on Twitter. “The Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Paris would like to point out that the information disseminated in the media, concerning the arrest of a Saudi citizen suspected in the context of the Khashoggi affair, is inaccurate”, writes the embassy, asking “his immediate release.”
“The embassy also wishes to clarify that the Saudi justice has rendered its verdict on those guilty of the murder of Saudi citizen Jamal Kashoggi, may God have mercy on him, and that they are currently serving their respective sentences”, she asserted.
Statement from the Saudi Embassy in Paris on the arrest of a Saudi citizen pic.twitter.com/x0rAOMrfRJ
– Saudi Arabia in France (@KSAembassyFRA) December 7, 2021
Critic of Saudi power after being close to it, Jamal Khashoggi, resident in the United States and columnist for the daily Washington Post, was assassinated on October 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey by a team of agents who came from Saudi Arabia.
Ryad had claimed that Khashoggi’s assassination had been committed by Saudi agents who acted alone, but a US intelligence report accuses Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman of having “validated” it, an accusation forcefully rejected by the Saudi Arabia.