The arrest came just days after French President Emmanuel Macron met Saudi crown prince and de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, dismissing suggestions that his visit was effectively endorsing Khashoggi's murder. Then the embassy came with a lawyer and they took me out.'

'In the morning an officer came and the communication became better.

'At the beginning they prevented me from talking to the embassy. 'I tried to avoid problems,' the released man said of his ordeal. Khalid al-Otaibi is a common name in Saudi Arabia.

The other Otaibi is suspected of being part of the hit squad that carried out the murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Otaibi was the victim of a case of mistaken identity as he shares his name with a man wanted under an international arrest warrant in connection with Khashoggi's killing. The arrest came the same day as the Washington DC City Council announced it would rename the street in front of the Saudi Embassy to Jamal Khashoggi Way in a slap at the autocratic Middle Eastern country responsible for his brutal murder. Supporters of the bill said the name change will serve to 'permanently shame and embarrass' Saudi diplomats and their visitors for Khashoggi's government-ordered slaying.

'Jamal Khashoggi Way will serve as a daily reminder for the Saudi Embassy and the Saudi government that Jamal Khashoggi and his legacy are just as powerful in death as in life, and that the principles of human rights and democracy for which he gave his life burn bright in those letters spelling out his name and in that sign right just across the street,' Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, told Yahoo News. The City Council unanimously passed the Jamal Khashoggi Way Designation Act on Tuesday, saying it serves as a reminder that 'free press is fundamental to our democracy' and of the dangers journalists face dangers worldwide. Washington DC will rename a street in honor of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in a slap at the autocratic Middle Eastern country responsible for his brutal murder.

Christina khalid