Europe 1 with AFP 22:56, December 07, 2021
The Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris said Tuesday evening that the Saudi arrested earlier in the day in France had "no connection" to the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in Istanbul, and called for his " immediate release ". Those "guilty of the murder" have already been tried in Saudi Arabia and "are serving" their sentences there, she added.
The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Paris said on Tuesday evening that the Saudi arrested earlier in the day in France had "no connection" to the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul and called for his "release. immediate ".
"The citizen in question has no connection with the case," the embassy tweeted, adding that the "murderers" have already been tried in Saudi Arabia and "are serving" their sentences there.
Press release from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Paris regarding the arrest of a Saudi citizen pic.twitter.com/x0rAOMrfRJ
- Saudi Arabia in France (@KSAembassyFRA) December 7, 2021
An arrest three days after the Macron-MBS meeting
The man, who presented a passport in the name of Khalid Alotaibi, was arrested Tuesday morning at the Parisian airport of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle when he was preparing to take the plane to Riyadh and placed in detention judicial, according to a source close to the case. This arrest came three days after French President Emmanuel Macron met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman in Jeddah.
Washington Post contributor and critic of the Saudi regime after being close to it, Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and his body cut into pieces in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to retrieve a document.
This murder plunged Saudi Arabia into one of its worst diplomatic crises and tarnished the image of the crown prince, known as "MBS", designated by Turkish and American officials as having been the commissioner of the murder.