RIYADH-Khaled Al-Otaibi, the Saudi citizen who has been released after being detained mistakenly at Paris International Airport, said that the French security authorities treated him very badly.
Al-Otaibi speaking to Tv channels after his arrival at Saudi Arabia.
“They detained me in a filthy room of which the walls were stained with blood, where I could neither take rest nor sleep,” he said while speaking to Okaz.
Al-Otaibi recounted his harrowing experience one day after his release from wrongful custody by the French security authorities. The French public prosecutor said that the detention was a case of mistaken identity in connection with the murder case of Jamal Khashoggi.
Al-Otaibi said that he was a victim of bad treatment and harassment. He said that the ordeal began when he was stopped by the Passport Department at Paris airport while he was completing procedures for travel to Riyadh
. They searched me and then took to custody for three hours at the airport, and then the police officials had taken me to a security center next to the airport,” he said while explaining that he did not know what was going on.
“I requested them to allow me either inform Saudi embassy of what happened to me or appoint a lawyer for me but to no avail. However, I managed to contact my friend, who in turn called the embassy, which responded directly, as its staff members were looking for me,” he said.
Al-Otaibi said that he was then able to secure his mobile phone and received a call from the embassy. The Saudi ambassador and other embassy officials came immediately but the security authorities did not allow him to meet them.
Replying to queries about the treatment of French security forces, he said that the treatment was very bad. “They did not even give me any opportunity to speak, and all their answers were in French. Later, an Arabic-speaking female lawyer explained to me that he was detained in connection with a murder case,” he said.
Al-Otaibi said that while he was detained in a filthy room, three security men started laughing and mocking him, and then took him handcuffed as he was walking with difficulty. “When they had shown me photograph of a person and asked about him, I replied that I did not know anything about him. The person in the picture was not me, and that his name was different from that of mine,” he said.
Al-Otaibi said that he insisted the security officials to allow him to meet someone from the embassy but they allowed him to do so at 1 pm on that day. The embassy reassured him that he would be released soon, he said.
It is noteworthy that the Saudi embassy issued a statement on Thursday in which it clarified that Al-Otaibi was arrested on suspicion in the case of Khashoggi. The embassy stated that it had followed up the case with the relevant French authorities to prove the fact that the names were similar and not related to the issue, noting that embassy officials visited the citizen at his place of detention and checked on his conditions until his release and departure to the Kingdom.
Earlier, the embassy demanded French authorities to immediately release Al-Otaibi who was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the 2018 murder of Khashoggi. “In reference to what was circulated in the media about the arrest of a Saudi citizen suspected in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the embassy of Saudi Arabia in France would like to clarify that what was circulated is incorrect, and that the person arrested has nothing to do with the case in question,” the embassy said in a statement.
The French security authorities released Al-Otaibi after realizing that he was wrongfully detained. Paris prosecutors said in a statement that checks had shown that a warrant issued by Turkey, which had triggered the arrest when the man’s passport was scanned during border checks, did not apply to the man arrested at the airport. (SG)