Jamal Khashukji
French police have detained 33-year-old Saudi Arabian Khaled Eid al-Uteibi suspect in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. It is reported by RTL.
A former member of the Saudi Royal Guard was awaiting boarding a flight to Riyadh. Under him, law enforcement officers found documents, which confirmed his identity. However, the police are now conducting additional checks.
In the case of the voluntary consent of Eid al-Uteibi, France will hand over the detainee to the Turkish authorities, where the trial is taking place. Otherwise, the decision on extradition will be made by a French court.
Khashoggi disappeared without a trace on October 2, 2018 after a visit to the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul. The journalist went there to obtain documents that would help him to file a divorce and marry a Turkish woman Cengiz. But after that he never returned home: according to Turkish journalists, Khashoggi was killed by order from Riyadh right on the territory of the consulate general.
Turkish media, citing sources in law enforcement and investigative agencies, reported that the authorities have confirmation that Khashoggi was brutally tortured in the consulate building and then killed.
In 2021, the US National Intelligence submitted a report in which it accused the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia of approving an operation to kidnap or kill Khashoggi. After that, the US administration imposed visa sanctions on 76 citizens of Saudi Arabia, who, according to the State Department, “threatened dissidents abroad, appeared in the murder of Khashoggi and not only in it.”
