This is the epilogue of an entanglement lasting several hours.
The Saudi national arrested in France on Tuesday is not the suspect sought by Turkey in the Khashoggi assassination case.
"The in-depth checks relating to the identity of this person have made it possible to establish that the mandate did not apply to her", detailed this Wednesday the Attorney General of Paris, Rémy Heitz.
"He was released," he added.
The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Paris called for his "immediate release" on Tuesday evening, after French authorities detained him on suspicion of being a member of the commando team involved in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
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
"The citizen in question has no connection with the case," the embassy tweeted, adding that the "guilty of the murder" have already been tried in Saudi Arabia and "are serving" their sentences there.
The "real" Khalid Alotaibi would already be imprisoned
This man, who presented a passport in the name of Khalid Alotaibi, 33, was arrested Tuesday morning at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport and placed in judicial detention, by the border police while he was was about to take a flight to Riyadh, said a source familiar with the matter.
At the time of his passage through control, the Interpol red notice targeting him as part of an international arrest warrant issued by Turkey was activated, according to the same source.
But according to a source belonging to the Saudi security services, "the real Khaled al-otaibi and all the accused in this case are imprisoned within the Saudi kingdom".
"There are hundreds of Saudis who bear the same name," she stressed.
Read alsoDeath of Khashoggi: 5 minutes to understand the American accusations against MBS and Saudi Arabia
The man was suspected of having been part of a commando group of ten Saudis who "executed" Jamal Khashoggi and "concealed the evidence" of the murder, according to documents from the British and American governments, consulted by AFP.
The former close to Saudi power - of which he had become a fierce detractor - was assassinated on the premises of his country's consulate in Istanbul, in October 2018, by a commando of agents from Saudi Arabia.
His dismembered body has never been found.
After denying the murder, Ryad ended up saying that it had been committed by agents who acted alone.
After an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, five Saudis were sentenced to death and three to prison terms - death sentences have since been commuted.
A US intelligence report accuses the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia of having "validated" the assassination.