Jamal Khashoggi Murder: One Suspect Arrested In France, Saudi Claims Wrong Person Held

Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the current Saudi regime run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

Turkish writer Hatice Cengiz (R), fiancée of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, poses next to a portrait of Khashoggi after unveiling it on the National Mall in Washington, DC., on October 1, 2021. | AFP

New Delhi: One of the involved in the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been arrested at Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris on Tuesday, but Saudi officials claim the French Police are holding the wrong person in custody.

BBC reports, 33-year-old Khaled Aedh Alotaibi, a former Saudi royal guard, was arrested in France while he was trying to board a flight to Riyadh. The alleged murder suspect was travelling under his own name and was placed in judicial detention.

The Saudi embassy in Paris issued a statement late Tuesday stating the man arrested "has nothing to do with the case in question" and is namesake as the alleged murderer.

AFP quoting a security source reports that "Khaled Alotaibi" is a common name in Saudi Arabia, and that the Alotaibi the French thought they were holding is actually serving time in prison in Saudi Arabia.

A man named Khalid Alotaibi is one of 26 charged over the killing of a Saudi journalist.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the current Saudi regime run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

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Saudi Arabia in a statement had said Khashoggi was killed in a "rogue operation" by a team of agents sent to persuade him to return to the country. However, as per Turkish investigation officials, the agents acted on orders from the "highest levels of the Saudi government".

The murder of the Saudi journalist caused an uproar against the Saudi government. Plenty of questions were posed against Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and his alleged involvement in such a heinous crime. Mohammed bin Salman, however, refuted all allegations and denied any role in the killing of the Saudi journalist.

Meanwhile, in 2019, a Saudi court convicted eight unnamed people over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Five of them, who were found guilty of directly participating in the killing, were given 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.