France frees Saudi man mistakenly caught in Jamal Khashoggi homicide case

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France on Wednesday launched a Saudi nationwide arrested at Paris airport over suspected hyperlinks to the homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after authorities concluded it was a case of mistaken id.

French regulation enforcement sources recognized the detained man as Khalid ed al-Otaibi, the identical identify listed in US and British sanctions paperwork as a former member of the Saudi Royal Guard and in a UN-commissioned report. was concerned as being concerned in Khashoggi’s homicide. Turkey.

The Saudi embassy in Paris stated late Tuesday that the person arrested had “nothing to do with the case.”

Prosecutors stated the test confirmed {that a} warrant issued by Turkey, which triggered the arrest when the person’s passport was scanned throughout a border test, didn’t apply to an individual arrested on the airport.

“A comprehensive investigation into the identity of this person has revealed that the warrant did not apply to him … he was released,” the assertion from the prosecutor’s workplace stated.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was final seen getting into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. Turkish officers imagine his physique was dismembered and eliminated. His stays haven’t been discovered.


A senior French police officer stated he was shocked by the incidents. The man caught in a single day made a number of European journeys over the previous months and entered France in November with out challenge, he stated, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

When information of the arrest first broke in Paris, rights teams and Khashoggi’s fiancé expressed aid that such a high-profile suspect had been caught.

A 2019 UN investigation report stated that al-Otaabi was a member of the 15-member Saudi staff concerned in Khashoggi’s homicide when the journalist appeared on the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for permission to marry his fiancée. went to get it.

The arrests got here at a delicate time for the nations concerned.

President Emmanuel Macron had turn out to be the primary main Western chief to carry face-to-face talks with Prince Mohammed, a serious purchaser of French arms, since Khashoggi’s assassination a couple of days earlier.

Macron sees Saudi Arabia as important in serving to to achieve a region-wide peace take care of Iran, in addition to an ally within the struggle towards Islamist militants from the Middle East to West Africa and a rampage towards the Muslim Brotherhood.

Turkey initially sought to place worldwide stress on Prince Mohammed after Khashoggi’s assassination, saying the order got here from the best ranges of the Saudi authorities, however Ankara has just lately appeared in favor of enhancing relations.

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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS

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