A suspected member of the team that murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Khaled Al-Otaibi, was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris on Tuesday, judicial and airport sources said.
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The suspect, a former Royal Guard of Saudi Arabia, was wanted by Interpol after Turkey issued an arrest warrant against him on the basis of assassination, France's RTL radio station reported.
Otaibi is one of 20 Saudi suspects being pursued by the police organization in connection to Khashoggi's death, according to RTL.
He was placed into judicial detention after attempting to depart for Riyadh from the airport in France with travel documents bearing his name.
Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The murder drove a wedge between Washington and Riyadh during the early months of US President Joe Biden's term – the State Department announced a policy named for the jounalist, the "Khashoggi Ban," which would impose visa limitations on foreign government agents targeting journalists or dissidents.
Though the kingdom denied any involvement of its deputy prime minister, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, in the incident, a United States intelligence report released earlier this year alleged that the official "approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."
i24NEWS contributed to this report
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