French authorities said Wednesday they had released a man arrested on suspicion of playing a role in the 2018 Istanbul murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after realising he was not the same individual on an arrest warrant issued by Turkey.

The man, bearing a passport in the name of Khalid al-Otaibi, was arrested by French border police at Paris’s main airport on Tuesday as he prepared to board a flight to Riyadh, police and judicial sources said.

A man named Khalid al-Otaibi is one of the 26 being tried in absentia in Turkey for being part of the hit squad that carried out Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He has also been sanctioned by the US Treasury for his role in the killing.

“In-depth verifications to determine the identity of this person have enabled us to establish that the warrant was not applicable to him,” the chief prosecutor in Paris said in a statement, confirming the man had been arrested on the basis of a Turkish arrest warrant issued in November 2018.

“He has been released,” the prosecutor added.

Mistaken identity

Earlier on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia claimed that French authorities had arrested the wrong man.

“The person arrested has nothing to do with the case in question,” the ministry of foreign affairs said. “Therefore the Kingdom expects his immediate release.”

The statement added that Saudi authorities have already convicted and jailed Khashoggi’s murders, though it has never confirmed their identities and the trial was held behind closed doors.

At the time, the trial was criticised by UN officials and human rights groups who believe Khashoggi’s killers are still at large.

It came as Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancée, welcomed news of the arrest. “The Saudi authorities are closing the case without the world knowing the truth of who is responsible for Jamal’s murder,” she said. “Who planned it, who ordered it, where is his body?”

Khashoggi, a respected columnist for the Washington Post, was strangled and dismembered inside the consulate and his remains have never been found.

The journalist was an outspoken critic of Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who strongly denies any involvement in his death.  

However, a recent report by the CIA concluded that the Crown Prince personally ordered the killing of the Saudi columnist, who had been living in self-imposed exile.

The brazen murder caused international outrage and turned the Crown Prince into a global pariah, though in recent months he has sought to repair his repuation abroad.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, held face-to-face talks with the Crown Prince over the weekend, leading to accusations he was trying to legitimise Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.