RIYADH, 29 September — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd has extended royal clemency to Greek captain George Sideris, who was serving a three-year jail term in Saudi Arabia after being convicted on charges of trading alcohol.
The Saudi coastal guards intercepted and nabbed the Greek captain who was sailing with three Kuwaitis along the Saudi waters in late 2000.
As a token of cordial relations between the Kingdom and Greece, the Saudi government has released the captain", said Greek Ambassador George Papadopoulos, while thanking the leadership for the royal gesture. "I am really very grateful that the Saudi government has released him well before completing his three-year prison term", said the ambassador.
The Greek captain returned home recently. The Greek captain was sailing along the Saudi waters for Kuwait while his ship was intercepted by the coastal guards.
The Greek Embassy said that the mission applied for royal pardon only after a trial by the Saudi court, which handed down the punishment. Earlier, two similar requests for clemency were refused on grounds that the accused had not spent sufficient time in prison. Sideris was detained at Al-Khafji jail.
"The conviction of Sideris was for three years because he repeated the offense of alcohol trading," said Ambassador Papadopoulos, whose country will be holding the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) from Jan. 1, 2003.
Sideris has been accused by the Kingdom of committing the crime of alcohol trading way back in 1989, said Nicholas Kaplanis, head of consular office at the Greek Embassy.
He pointed that the captain was released after spending only one year in prison. He said three Kuwaiti nationals detained with Sideris were released earlier.
The Kingdom, a close ally of Greece and the European Union, is home to over 700 Greek nationals including 150 American and Australian Greeks, who hold double citizenships, said Kaplanis.
The diplomat pointed out that a total of 690 Saudi nationals have traveled to Greece during the first eight months of this year, representing a declining Saudi traffic to that country compared to a year before.
