(Bobigny) Imbroglio around a Saudi national arrested in France: the Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris asked for his “immediate release” on Tuesday evening, after the French authorities placed him in detention, suspecting him of being a member of the commando team involved in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
“The citizen in question has no connection with the case,” the embassy tweeted, adding that the “guilty of the murder” have already been tried in Saudi Arabia and “are serving” their sentences there.
This man, who presented a passport in the name of Khalid Alotaibi, 33, was arrested Tuesday morning at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport and placed in judicial detention, by the border police while he was was about to take a flight to Riyadh, said a source familiar with the matter.
At the time of his passage through control, the Interpol red notice targeting him was activated, according to the same source.
Checks were still underway on Tuesday evening, to ensure his identity and that the arrest warrant applies to the man arrested, according to another source close to the case, who points out that his detention can last 48 hours.
The man arrested was placed in judicial detention as part of an international arrest warrant issued by Turkey, said a judicial source.
But according to a source belonging to the Saudi security services, “the real Khaled al-otaibi and all the accused in this case are imprisoned within the Saudi kingdom”.
“There are hundreds of Saudis who bear the same name,” she stressed.
On the other hand, if his identity was indeed confirmed at the end of his detention, this man could be presented to the public prosecutor’s office of the Paris Court of Appeal, which should notify him of the arrest warrant.
Khalid Alotaibi is suspected of having been part of a commando of ten Saudis sent to the Istanbul consulate on October 2, 2018 to “execute” Khashoggi and “hide the evidence” of the murder, according to documents from the British governments and Americans, consulted by AFP.
Body not found
This arrest and this imbroglio come three days after the meeting of French President Emmanuel Macron with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman in Jeddah.
The reunion with the strongman of Riyadh, “MBS”, was eagerly awaited, three years after the shock caused by the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.
“We talked about everything without any taboos. And we were obviously able to evoke the question of human rights […] and it was a direct exchange, ”said Emmanuel Macron. “The coming weeks and months will allow us to see if we move forward on this subject. ”
Emmanuel Macron had justified his meeting with the Crown Prince, one of the first for a Western leader since this affair, because “dialogue with Saudi Arabia is a necessity” because of its “demographic, economic, historical and religious ”.
Jamal Khashoggi, a former close to Saudi power of which he had become a fierce detractor, was assassinated on the premises of his country’s consulate in Istanbul, in October 2018, by a commando of agents from Saudi Arabia. His dismembered body has never been found.
A US intelligence report accuses the crown prince of having “validated” the assassination.
After denying the murder, Riyadh ended up saying that it was committed by Saudi agents who acted alone. After an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, five Saudis were sentenced to death and three to prison terms – death sentences have since been commuted.