France releases man who was held as possible suspect in Jamal Khashoggi murder
CBSN
French police on Tuesday arrested a man that they believed to be a member of the hit squad that murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but they got the wrong man. The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday that the man detained the previous day was not, in fact, 33-year-old Khalid Alotaibi, who is wanted by Turkey to face justice over the killing that took place at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul.
A Saudi official told Reuters on Tuesday that the French police had detained the wrong man, calling it a case of mistaken identity and demanding his immediate release. French officials confirmed that was the case less than 24 hours later.
The man was detained by border police on the basis of the Turkish arrest warrant as he was about to board a flight to Riyadh from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, judicial and airport sources told AFP.
