8th December, 2021
Paris prosecutors said the Saudi man arrested at an airport over suspected links to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was released on Wednesday.
This was after officials concluded it was a case of mistaken identity.
French law enforcement sources on Tuesday named the man as Khaled Aedh Al-Otaibi, the same name as a former member of the Saudi Royal Guard.
The name was listed in U.S. and British sanctions documents and a U.N.-commissioned report as having been involved in Khashoggi’s killing in Turkey. read more
The Saudi Embassy in Paris had said late on Tuesday the arrested person “has nothing to do with the case in question.”
Prosecutors said in a statement checks had shown that a warrant issued by Turkey, which had triggered the arrest when the man’s passport was scanned during border checks, did not apply to the man arrested at the airport.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.
Turkish officials believe his body was dismembered and removed. His remains have not been found.