France releases Jamal Khashoggi murder suspect, admitting identity mistaken

French authorities had thought the man was the ‘Khalid Alotaibi’ wanted under an international arrest warrant for links to the journalist’s killing

The Saudi embassy said the man arrested had ‘nothing to do with the case’, and a security source noted that the name was a common one in the kingdom

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The Committee to Protect Journalists and other press freedom activists hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Saudi embassy in October 2019 to mark the anniversary of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:30am, 9 Dec 2021

French authorities on Wednesday released a man arrested on suspicion of playing a role in the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul after determining he had been a victim of mistaken identity.

The man, bearing a passport in the name of Khalid Alotaibi, was arrested by French border police at Paris’s main airport on Tuesday as he prepared to board a flight to Riyadh.

Police and judicial sources initially told French media that he was the Khalid Alotaibi wanted under an international arrest warrant for being part of the hit squad that carried out Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

“In-depth verifications to determine the identity of this person have enabled us to establish that the warrant was not applicable to him,” the chief prosecutor in Paris, Remy Heitz, said in a statement that admitted to the blunder.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks during a press conference in Manama, Bahrain in December 2014. Photo: AP

“He has been released,” it added, dashing the hopes of campaigners who thought the detention spelt a breakthrough in their quest to bring the perpetrators to justice.