A 33-year-old man suspected of participating in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was arrested in France on Tuesday.
A police source said that Khaled Ayed Al-Otaibi was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris BBC. The man must have traveled in his name.
A police source told Reuters news agency that the French Public Prosecution Office is working to extradite the detainee to Turkey. He is suspected of being one of the group of men who killed Khashoggi in October 2018.
breakthrough
Agnes, former UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial liquidations and arbitrary executions Callamard says in a tweet that this could be a major breakthrough in the pursuit of justice in this case.
Moreover Khadija Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancée at the time of the murder, welcomed Al-Otaibi’s arrest. It urged France to pursue the case against him, or to hand over Al-Otaibi to a state that is capable and willing to do so.
In 2019, a Saudi court sentenced eight people for premeditated murder. Five of them were convicted of complicity in the murder. They were initially sentenced to death, later commuted to twenty years in prison. Three others were convicted of covering up the murder. They were imprisoned for seven to ten years.
mention that time UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial liquidations and arbitrary executions, Anias Callamard in The rulings had no legal or moral legitimacy.
She specifically referred to it Those who allegedly ordered the killing are released.
Callmard has is audited The killing, and like the CIA, among others, concluded that the Saudi state was responsible.
According to Callmard’s report, Saudi prosecutors ordered it Al-Otaibi was due to be arrested as part of the investigation into the murder, but no charges were brought against him. This is despite the fact that Al-Otaibi, according to Callmard was at the home of the Saudi Consul General during the assassination.
deny guilt
Crown Prince bin Salman has always denied that he was aware of the murder plans. He had the support of his father, King Salman, and then US President Donald Trump.
Jamal Khashoggi lived in exile, was killed and maimed when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up the papers he needed to get married.
Inside the building, the 59-year-old was strangled to death and then separated by a group of 15 agents inside the consulate, according to Turkish authorities.
Outside, his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was waiting. When he did not come out again, the Turkish authorities were alerted.
The man’s remains have not been found.
critic of the crown prince
Khashoggi was previously on good terms with the Saudi royal family, but was critical of the crown prince. Khashoggi, in statements to the Washington Post, among others, criticized bin Salman, who is now considered the real leader in Saudi Arabia.
The assassination received great attention and caused great damage to the reputation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. His employees were sanctioned by both the United States and the United Kingdom for their alleged role in the liquidation.