French Police Wrongly Arrest A Man Suspected Of Being A Member Of The Jamal Khashoggi Murder Team, His Name Happens To Be The Same

Photo by Weston MacKinnon on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The name is indeed the same. But this is not the man suspected of being a member of the team that killed the Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. The man has been released.

Previously, the man was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport last Tuesday, December 7. Police sources identified the man as Khaled Aedh Al-Otaibi, a former Saudi Arabian Royal Guard.

Khaled Aedh Al-Otaibi, who is now 33 years old, was immediately examined intensively. And the result?

Paris prosecutors have concluded that the Saudi man should be released. This arrest was due to a case of mistaken identity, quoted from The Guardian, Wednesday, December 8.

"An extensive examination of this person's identity has allowed us to establish that the warrant does not apply to him," read a statement from the attorney general, Rémy Heitz.

"He has been released."

Previously, Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi's trip at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport when he was about to board a plane to Riyadh was stopped by the police. He is strongly suspected of being a former member of the Saudi royal guard accused of involvement in the killing of Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

When the man's passport was scanned during border procedures, it marked a warrant issued by Turkey, which triggered the arrest.

But after more than 24 hours of identity checks, Paris prosecutors said the man's identity did not match the warrant and he was released. It is believed that he has the same name as the person being sought.

The Saudi embassy in Paris has also confirmed that the person arrested had nothing to do with the murder case.

However, this catching mistake was appreciated by the public. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Dawn, a pro-democracy advocacy group founded by Khashoggi, said the fact that police had acted on the warrant, despite cases of mistaken identity, was an encouraging sign that the global community was taking the case seriously.

"It is encouraging to know that Europe has effectively reaffirmed that the killers of Khashoggi - including Prince Mohammed - will face criminal prosecution and prosecution if they set foot in their country," he said.