The man arrested and released the same name as the Saudi sought for his involvement in the assassination of the journalist.
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There will be no diplomatic crisis between Paris and Riyadh. The Saudi national arrested on Tuesday, December 7, by the border police (PAF) at Roissy airport was released Wednesday and returned to his country. After checks, the individual proved to be a simple homonym of a Saudi sought for his involvement in the assassination of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, perpetrated in October 2018, in the Kingdom Consulate in Istanbul.
According to a Saudi source, interviewed by Le Monde, this man, called Khaled Aedh Al-Otai, had arrived a week earlier in France, with a friend, as part of a pleasure trip . It was during his visit to Roissy Passport Control Desk, as he was about to take his return to Riyadh, which he attracted the attention of PAF.
The Turkish authorities have issued an international arrest warrant on 5 November 2018 against fifteen Saudi agents sent to Istanbul to kill Mr. Khashoggi and get rid of his body. Among them was a certain Khaled Aedh Al-Otaiibi, a member of the Saudi Royal Guard. In the stride, Interpol had issued a red notice on behalf of each member of this commando.
Relief at the Elysee
It is on this basis that the Saudi tourist has been placed in judicial retention. According to a source close to the file, cited by the AFP, “the recovered search cards corresponded to the profile of Al-Otaibi, same months, year and place of birth. There was a physical resemblance,” added the source, By stating that “it is the judicial elements that have reached Turkey that have released this man”.
This narrative does not help to understand how the latter has been able to land in Roissy, a week earlier, without triggering an identical alert. According to the Saudi source of the world, he had already went to France, in 2019, so after the issue of the red notice, too without being worried.
The announcement of the mistake has probably been welcomed with relief by the Elysee. The opposite scenario would have placed President Macron in an untenable location vis-à-vis the Saudi Prince, Mohammed Ben Salman, three days after their meeting in Jedda, in the west of the kingdom. The visit was criticized by human rights organizations, who criticized the head of state “rehabilitating” the one that the CIA accuses of having “validated” the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.
This denouement also makes Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish President, who instrumentalized the Khashoggi scandal in 2018-2019 to destabilize Mohammed Ben Salman with whom he was drawn, looking for today to get closer to the strong man of Riyadh.