Something new in the Jamal Khashoggi case.
An alleged member of the commando involved in the assassination of the Saudi journalist in 2018, in Istanbul, was arrested this Tuesday morning at Parisian airport of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and placed in detention, according to judicial and airport sources.
This is Khalid Alotaibi, 33 years old.
He was arrested by the border police as he was about to take a flight to Riyadh, said a source familiar with the matter.
Read alsoDeath of Khashoggi: 5 minutes to understand the American accusations against MBS and Saudi Arabia
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 October 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to retrieve a document.
He was 59 years old at the time of his death and his remains have never been found.
A Macron-MBS meeting last week
Emmanuel Macron ended his express tour in the Gulf last Saturday by launching an initiative to help Lebanon with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman, with whom he claims to have had a "no-taboo" discussion on human rights. The reunion with the strong man of Riyadh, "MBS", was eagerly awaited, three years after the shock caused by the assassination of the journalist in the consulate of the kingdom in Istanbul. “We talked about everything without any taboos. And we were obviously able to discuss the issue of human rights (…) and it was a direct exchange, ”said Emmanuel Macron at the end of this meeting.
Riyadh had claimed that Khashoggi's assassination had been committed by Saudi agents who acted alone, but a US intelligence report accuses the crown prince of having "validated" it, an accusation forcefully rejected by Saudi Arabia.
Emmanuel Macron had justified his meeting with the Crown Prince, one of the first for a Western leader since this affair, because "dialogue with Saudi Arabia is a necessity" because of its "demographic, economic, historical and religious ”.