Despite the fact that French police detained a Saudi man on Tuesday in connection with the death of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi, French officials cautioned that they were still checking his identification.
A French judicial official confirmed that the man, identified as Khalid Alotaibi, 33, was apprehended at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Turkey just before he was scheduled to board a flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, just before he was scheduled to board the flight.
Mr. Khashoggi was slain inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and a guy by the name of Jamal Khashoggi is being held responsible for his death.
In a time when Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, are trying to put the killing behind them and repair their international image, the arrest might revive worldwide curiosity sparked by the execution.
The Turkish trial of the suspects has been moving slowly, partly due to Saudi Arabia’s refusal to give over any of the accused to the Turkish authorities. If Mr. Alotaibi is found guilty and sentenced in Turkey, he will be the first Saudi Arabian defendant to stand trial in person outside of the country.
Following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi court sentenced five individuals to death and three others to jail terms. However, the death penalties were commuted to prison terms when one of Mr. Khashoggi’s sons claimed that he and his siblings had pardoned the perpetrators. However, access to the trial was severely restricted, the identities of those convicted were never made public, and human rights organisations branded the proceedings a fraud, according to the International Federation of Human Rights.
Mr. Khashoggi, a well-known Saudi writer and journalist, was assassinated in Istanbul in October 2018 after visiting the Saudi Consulate to collect the documents he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée. Mr. Khashoggi was a popular Saudi writer and journalist.
According to a report by a United Nations expert on the assassination, while inside, he was accosted by a team of Saudi operatives who attempted to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.
When he refused, they injected him with a sedative and smothered him with a plastic bag until he passed out from the anaesthesia. After he died, they dismembered his corpse using a bone saw, according to Turkish security authorities, before disposing of it in a landfill.
According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s assessment after the death, it was very probable that Prince Mohammed had ordered it. According to an intelligence assessment released in February, Prince Mohammed had given his approval to a plot to arrest or murder Mr. Khashoggi. President Biden permitted the information to be released.
The Saudis have described the death as a rogue operation, and Crown Prince Mohammed has denied that he ordered it or was aware of it in advance of the event taking place.
