JEDDAH, 5 February 2007 — Ten men arrested on Friday night on suspicion of funding insurgents outside the country included reformists, activists and academics, sources told Arab News. The sources, who wish to remain anonymous, identified the 10 suspects as: Saud Mukhtar, Sulaiman Al-Rushoudi, Essam Basrawy, Abdulrahman Al-Shumairi, Abdulaziz Al-Khuraiji, Mousa Al-Garni, Al-Sharif Saif Al-Deen Shaheen, Abdulrahman Sadeeq Khan, Mohammed Hasen Al-Qurashi and a Moroccan national. Interior Ministry officials have yet to confirm the suspects’ identities.

The Interior Ministry said Saturday it had arrested 10 people, including a foreign resident, for illegally collecting donations and smuggling them to “suspicious parties” outside the country. It said the arrests were part of police operations against “funding terrorism.”

Authorities said the investigations are continuing. Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said Saturday that the role played by each of the arrested men would have to be defined.

Shaheen and Khan were believed to have been arrested in Madinah while the others were detained when police raided Basrawy’s Obhur beach house in Jeddah.

Bassem Alem, a Saudi lawyer, representing four of the 10 men detained — Saud Mukhtar, Essam Basrawy, Abdulaziz Al-Khuraiji and Abdulrahman Al-Shumairi — said: “I was not allowed to see my clients nor were we informed of the charges against them.” Alem questioned the legitimacy of the arrests, arguing that his clients are known reformists and “their actions have always been out in the clear.”

The families of the detainees first learned of the arrests through the media and police raids on their homes. According to Alem, a driver and a maid from the beach house broke the news to some of his clients’ families.

“Others became aware of the arrests when security forces raided their houses confiscating laptops, desktop computers, documents and other items the following morning,” he added. Saud Mukhtar’s family learned of his arrest from the media.

“We learned of my brother’s arrest from reading the news strip flashing across the Al-Jazeera channel on Saturday,” said Afaf Mukhtar, one of Saud’s sisters.

She is a professor at the Girls’ College of Education in Jeddah for the last 17 years. Her family including Saud’s, along with his brothers, sisters and elderly mother, live in a family compound in the Al-Safa District of Jeddah.

Her voice was full of emotion and intensity as she expressed incredulity at the accusations against her brother. “It is something that confuses the heart and mangles the mind. How can he be accused of ‘suspicious’ funding? He is known among people to have an open and willing hand toward charity. All kinds of people — doctors, government officials, academics — have gone to him for assistance in charity work. How can government officials go to him for charity work and then arrest him because of the charity they asked for? By what right has this accusation been directed at him?”

Usama Mukhtar — one of Saud’s brothers and a senior official at the Ministry of Information — was arrested at 9 a.m. Saturday morning for resisting the police raid on his brother’s house.

“Usama stood protectively in front of the police who raided Saud’s house. He asked them to show him a search warrant that allowed them accessibility to his brother’s house,” said Afaf. He questioned the legality and lawfulness of their entrance into the house, especially since the children and their mother were the only other occupants.

“One of Saud’s daughters quoted a Qur’anic verse as saying that homes are not to be entered until you’ve been granted permission. But her words fell on deaf ears,” added Afaf.

“Saud is a God-fearing man: we’re a family that has always supported loyalty and obedience to our country’s legal guardian, King Abdullah. I’m sure that he wouldn’t approve of Saud’s criminal treatment or of how his family and home have been violated,” Afaf said.

Usama was arrested at 9 a.m. Saturday. He returned home at 2 a.m. yesterday. A few hours later he was at work as if nothing had happened.