Suspect in murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi arrested in Paris
Khaled Aedh Alotaibi was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Tuesday, a police source told. He is believed to be one of 26 Saudis wanted by Turkey over the killing. A Saudi official later said the arrest was a case of mistaken identity and that those involved in the murder had been convicted in Saudi Arabia.
RTL radio said that Mr Alotaibi, a 33-year-old former Saudi royal guard, was travelling under his name and was placed in judicial detention. Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the government in Riyadh, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
Saudi Arabia said the former Washington Post journalist had been killed in a "rogue operation" by a team of agents sent to persuade him to return to the kingdom. But Turkish officials said the agents acted on orders from the highest levels of the Saudi government.
The murder caused a global uproar and damaged the image of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has denied any role.
A Saudi court convicted eight unnamed people over the murder in 2019. Five of them were found guilty of directly participating in the killing and handed death sentences that were later commuted to 20-year prison terms, while three others were jailed for seven to 10 years for covering up the crime.
The Saudi trial was dismissed as "the antithesis of justice" by then-UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard.In a damning report released in 2019, Ms Callamard concluded that Khashoggi was "the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution" for which the Saudi state was responsible.
Tuesday's arrest comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron became the first prominent Western leader to meet the Saudi crown prince since Khashoggi's murder."We talked about absolutely everything, without any taboos, and we were able to bring up the question of human rights," Mr Macron told reporters on Saturday.
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