FRANCE FREES SAUDI MAN HELD OVER SUSPECTED JAMAL KHASHOGGI LINK

Wed 08 December 2021:

According to Paris prosecutors, the Saudi man arrested on Tuesday at a Paris airport for suspected ties to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been released after investigators determined it was a case of mistaken identity.

On Tuesday, French law enforcement sources identified the guy as Khalid Alotaibi, the same name as a former member of the Saudi Royal Guard named in US and British sanctions documents and a UN-commissioned report as a suspect in Khashoggi’s murder in Turkey.

The arrested person “had nothing to do with the case in question,” the Saudi embassy in Paris announced late Tuesday.

A security source in Saudi Arabia added that “Khaled Alotaibi” was a very common name in the kingdom, and that the person the French thought they were holding was actually serving time in prison in Saudi Arabia along with “all the defendants in the case”.

Prosecutors said 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.

“Extensive checks on the identity of this person showed that the warrant did not apply to him … he was released,” the statement from the prosecutor’s office said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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