JEDDAH, 25 May — The Kingdom is exerting intensive efforts to secure the repatriation of Saudis held by the United States in connection with the Afghan war and recently transmitted letters from 72 of them to their families, a senior official said in remarks published yesterday.
“The Saudi government is exerting huge efforts, away from the media spotlight” to secure the extradition of Saudis detained in US bases in Afghanistan or at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Saud Al-Musaibeih, head of relations and guidance at the Interior Ministry, quoted by the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.
Musaibeih said he had set up an office attached to his department “to take inquiries from those who have missing relatives, which operates more than 15 hours a day.”
Two weeks ago, the office “received 72 letters from Saudi detainees that were transmitted to their families,” he said, adding however that there were no precise figures on the total number of Saudis held in Afghanistan and Guantanamo camp.
The official said that like other detainees, the Saudis faced charges of belonging to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network or Afghanistan’s defeated Taleban militia or of having taken part in terrorist acts in the past.
“The Saudi government approaches this issue from a humanitarian, not security angle, and (its) objective is the repatriation of all Saudi detainees ... since they are Saudi citizens, it is for the Saudi government to interrogate and try them on its soil,” Musaibeih said.
Any suspects would get a “fair trial” in the Kingdom, while those who are innocent would be freed and rehabilitated, he said.
US authorities have refused to give the detainees prisoner-of-war status as set out under the Geneva Conventions and are reserving the right to put them before secret US military tribunals that have the power to impose the death penalty. So far, none of them have been charged with any crime.
The Saudi official said most of the Saudi detainees were “not more than 18 years old and the overwhelming majority were misled or were motivated by the zeal of young people to go to Afghanistan shortly before the US strike.”
The United States launched a military offensive against Afghanistan in October in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which it blamed on Al-Qaeda.
Moreover, many of the detainees had been working for international or “legal local” humanitarian organizations, while others went to Afghanistan to teach the Holy Qur’an, Musaibeih said.
Interior Minister Prince Naif said in January that there were “more than 100” Saudis detained at the US base in Guantanamo..
Naif said Riyadh had requested their repatriation to interrogate them in the Kingdom. He later suggested Riyadh could, if allowed, send a commission of inquiry to Guantanamo to interrogate its citizens there.
Pakistan earlier said that 250 “Arab Afghans,” including 240 Saudis, were arrested by US and Pakistani teams at the border with Afghanistan, but all were handed over to Washington.
