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Suspect in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder arrested in France

By
Social Links for Emily Crane
Published Dec. 7, 2021
Updated Dec. 7, 2021, 2:23 p.m. ET

One of the suspects in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was arrested in France on Tuesday trying to board a flight to Saudi Arabia.

Khaled Al-Otaibi, who is a former Royal Guard of Saudi Arabia, was taken into custody at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris as he was about to board the flight to Riyadh, French RTL radio reported.

The 33-year-old suspect is one of 26 Saudis wanted by Turkey after the Washington Post columnist was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

Al-Otaibi was traveling under his real name when he was arrested on the Turkish warrant.

The suspect is mentioned on US and UK sanctions lists, as well as on a French wanted list, for being involved in Khashoggi’s murder.

It wasn’t immediately clear how or when Al-Otaibi arrived in France.

French prosecutors will now begin proceedings for a potential extradition to Turkey.

“I welcome the arrest of one of Jamal’s killers today in France,” Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, tweeted.

“France should try him for his crime, or extradite him to a country able and willing to genuinely investigate and prosecute him as well as the person who gave the order to murder Jamal.”

Al-Otaibi’s apprehension marks the first international arrest in Khashoggi’s murder.

Jamal Khashoggi.
Twenty-six Saudis are wanted by Turkey in Jamal Khashoggi’s 2018 murder. Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images

Khashoggi was tortured and dismembered after going to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to get documents he needed to marry Cengiz.

The journalist was highly critical of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s rule.

Khashoggi’s remains have never been found.

US intelligence has blamed the crown prince for ordering Kashoggi’s killing, but bin Salman denies he was involved.

A frame grab on October 10, 2018 from a police CCTV video made available through Turkish Newspaper Sabah allegedly shows Halid Aedh G. Altaibi, member of a group of Saudi citizens that Turkish police suspect of being involved in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
A frame grab on October 10, 2018, from a police CCTV video made available through Turkish newspaper Sabah allegedly shows Halid Aedh G. Altaibi, a member of a group of Saudi citizens whom Turkish police suspect of being involved in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. AFP/Getty Images

A Saudi court convicted eight unnamed people over the journalist’s slaying in 2019. Five were found guilty of participating in the killing, while the three others were convicted of covering up the crime.

But a Turkish court began trying more than 20 suspects in absentia last year, including two of the crown prince’s former aides.

With Post wires