JEDDAH, 26 August 2004 — Saudi authorities have released the wife of the alleged Al-Qaeda chief in the Kingdom, Saleh Muhammad Al-Aufi, after a month in detention, an Interior Ministry official said in remarks published yesterday.
Fowziya Abdullah Hassan Al-Alawi was freed on Sunday after being questioned over her presence in a “suspicious place,” Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, said, quoting ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour Al-Turki.
Al-Riyadh daily quoted Turki as saying she was released after investigations were completed into the possible criminal charges of being present at a weapons warehouse, covering for terrorists and child endangerment.
He did not say if charges would be filed. She was released in light of “her condition as a woman and the need of her children for rehabilitation after witnessing (armed) clashes,” Turki was quoted as saying.
Fowziya was detained after she and her three children were held and moved to safety during a clash between Saudi security forces and militants in Riyadh on the night of July 20 in which two suspected militants were killed. The family was in a house raided by security forces.
Reports that Aufi was killed in the shootout later turned out to be unfounded. Three Saudi security officers were hurt during the raid. A large cache of weapons was seized, including an anti-aircraft SAM-7 missile, and chemicals to make explosives.
Okaz daily quoted relatives of Fowziya as saying she was pregnant and that she wanted to divorce her husband after he was named one of the Kingdom’s most-wanted militants.
It quoted Fowziya’s mother and sisters in Madinah as thanking authorities for her release. They said she was expected home soon.
Aufi, a 38-year-old former police officer, was reported to have replaced Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin as Al-Qaeda’s chief in Saudi Arabia after Muqrin and three associates were gunned down by security forces in Riyadh on June 18.
