JEDDAH, 8 February 2003 — Police have arrested eight young Saudis in connection with a shooting in Riyadh last month that left a Kuwaiti onlooker dead and three Saudis — including two security officers — wounded, the Interior Ministry announced yesterday.
Interior Minister Prince Naif told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that some of the eight suspects are accused of having links with Al-Qaeda.
“This will become clearer once investigations are completed,” he added.
“Preliminary investigations, as well as their own statements, revealed that the arrested Saudis were influenced by erroneous and deviant ideas,” a ministry official said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
The official did not identify the suspects but said the eight confessed to carrying out the attack. “They will be handed over to judicial authorities to give their judgment,” he added.
“Security forces exerted strenuous efforts to arrest some of the gunmen while the rest surrendered on their own or were handed over by their parents,” the official said.
The shooting happened while Saudi investigators were checking the identities of residents in the Al-Roushan complex in Riyadh’s Al-Maseef district as they attempted to track down four men wanted in connection with drug trafficking.
The Kuwaiti man who was killed was a soldier on a private visit to the Kingdom and was identified by the Interior Ministry as Fayez Abdullah Al-Zuabi. The incident took place on Jan. 23.
The source commended the gesture of the Saudi families who handed over the suspects to police.
“It reflects the true grain of Saudi society, which rejects all forms of crime and extremist thought,” he said.
“This attitude also reflects the Saudis’ confidence in the country’s security machinery and their total cooperation with it,” the official said.
“The voluntary surrender of culprits to police and their confessions reaffirm their desire to return to the right path and correct their mistakes,” the official said.
