Who is the man arrested Tuesday morning at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport? A member of the commando who participated in the assassination, in 2018, of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as suspected by the French authorities or a simple Saudi national, as supported by the Saudi Embassy in Paris? After 24 hours of doubt and verification, the Attorney General finally indicated this Wednesday, at the beginning of the afternoon, that the latter was a simple namesake. “The in-depth checks relating to the identity of this person made it possible to establish that the warrant did not apply to her”, indicated, in a press release, Rémy Heitz, specifying that he had been released.
Khalid al-Otaibi was preparing to board a flight to Riyadh when the usual checks of his passport triggered, around 9.20 am, a “red notice” from Interpol linked to an arrest warrant and extradition issued by Turkey. His namesake is in fact suspected of being a former member of the royal guard who participated in the assassination of this journalist, a detractor of the regime, while the latter was at the Istanbul consulate. The passenger was immediately placed in security detention at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport while waiting to shed light on his identity.