JEDDAH: Five Saudi militants who were wanted by police for security reasons were arrested in Taif recently following raids carried out by security forces in a number of residential districts in the city.
Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, said on Friday that the arrested militants were wanted for investigation.
He did not say whether the five were involved in any terrorist operations. But other sources said the five were not on the list of 85 wanted militants published by the Interior Ministry earlier this year.
They said security forces nabbed the five on Monday while they were hiding in Qamariya district of Taif.
The report on the arrest of militants came a day after the Justice Ministry announced that it had convicted 330 militants for their involvement in 179 cases related to terrorism and state security. The verdicts against the militants were given by nine judges of the special criminal court following trials in Riyadh and Jeddah, a judicial source said.
He disclosed plans to increase the number of judges at the criminal court from nine to 12. Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Prince Naif had announced earlier that 990 militants across the Kingdom would stand trial.
