Hundreds questioned in crackdown on terrorism
Brian Whitaker in Cairo Thursday November 21, 2002 The Guardian
Saudi Arabia, normally reluctant to admit to an al-Qaida presence on its soil, conceded yesterday that it had detained more than 100 people and questioned 700.
The statement by Prince Nayef, the interior minister, was the first official acknowledgment of so many detainees on terrorism charges in the kingdom since the September 11 attacks on the US last year.
Those arrested appear to be Saudi citizens who were living in Afghanistan.
"Prince Nayef unveiled the arrest of more than 100 Saudis who returned from Afghanistan on suspicion of having links to the al-Qaida organisation," the al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported.
"The number of those questioned on this issue was around 700 Saudis," the prince added, dismissing reports that the actual number was much higher.
The kingdom, which has one of the world's least transparent justice systems, does not routinely announce arrests. In some cases, as has happened with detained Britons, the authorities can delay confirmation for weeks.
Although 15 of the 19 hijackers in the September 11 attacks are believed to have been Saudis, officials in Riyadh initially questioned their identity.
In January Prince Nayef revealed that more than 100 of the detainees held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were Saudi citizens. Until then, the US had only confirmed that the 158 prisoners came from 30 countries, but the prince's remarks showed that Saudi citizens formed the largest group.
Prince Nayef also called on the US to return the Guantanamo prisoners to the kingdom but a Pentagon spokeswoman said the US would repatriate prisoners to "those countries that we feel will handle them appropriately".
On Monday the interior ministry announced that police in the al-Shifa district of Riyadh had captured and wounded a suspected terrorist.
Prince Nayef denied reports that eight police officers had been wounded in the battle and gave no indication as to whether the arrested man had al-Qaida connections.
Speaking on MBC, the Saudi-owned satellite channel, he said the suspect, Mohammad al-Sahim, was in hospital and would later be interrogated.
Opposition sources in London claimed that Mr Sahim was one of about 50 armed al-Qaida sympathisers who had been meeting in a house when police arrived to arrest them. Another report said 15 people - veterans of Afghanistan - were involved.
An earlier announcement of arrests linked to al-Qaida followed accusations in the US that Saudi Arabia was doing too little to combat terrorism.
In June, the official news agency said Saudi Arabia had detained 13 al-Qaida suspects who were allegedly plotting attacks in the kingdom.
Among those held was a Sudanese man who claimed to have fired a missile at an American warplane taking off from the Prince Sultan airbase.
The interior ministry indicated that the 13 included at least six Saudis. The ministry did not not say when the arrests took place, though some of the suspects had been held for several months at the time of the announcement.
The failed attack on the American plane only came to light when Saudi security guards discovered a missile launcher tube about two miles from a runway at the desert base where 4,500 US troops are stationed.
Saad al-Fagih, of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, a London-based Saudi opposition group, suggested at the time that the authorities in Riyadh had not intended to make the discovery public, but were forced to do so because the Americans had become aware of it.
He claimed there had been a total of five incidents where pieces of weapons carrying "the marks of al-Qaida" had been left as a warning near western installations in the kingdom.