JEDDAH, 23 June 2003 — The Kingdom is still seeking two main suspects in the triple suicide bombings on Western compounds in Riyadh which killed 35 people last month, Interior Minister Prince Naif said in an interview published yesterday.
The authorities have recently intensified a crackdown on suspected militants launched after the bombings in Riyadh, which have been blamed on the Al-Qaeda network.
Prince Naif told Okaz newspaper that 44 people had been arrested so far. They include four women arrested in a new raid in Makkah last week amid initial indications that they played a role in the terror network.
“Now we are concerned with two important suspects (still at large) and they are Al-Dandani and Al-Faqasi,” the prince said.
Turki Nasser Mishaal Al-Dandani and Ali Abdul Rahman Saeed Al-Faqasi Al-Ghamdi, both Saudi nationals, are the top two people on a wanted list of 19 suspected militants issued on May 7, a week before the May 12 bombings.
The prince said he believed they were still in the Kingdom.
Okaz quoted security officials as saying that two more suspects, who fled the Makkah raid, were arrested on Saturday.
Prince Naif also announced that the Kingdom will soon extradite eight suspected militants to Yemen following the June 8 pact aimed at beefing up security measures along the Saudi-Yemeni border.
He said that 17 Saudis and one Palestinian extradited by Sudan last week had no role in the terrorist attacks in Riyadh, but were linked to Al-Qaeda.
Prince Naif said the government planned to set up a body to oversee charitable donations in the Kingdom to prevent them from directly or indirectly reaching militant groups.
“I know that the state is moving to set up a national authority to organize zakah, and, God willing, that will happen,” the prince said.
The Kingdom has already taken steps to prevent charitable money from supporting terrorism — including freezing the assets of some organizations.
But the prince denied reports that Saudi businessmen and banks were supporting terrorist activities. “So far we have nothing on this,” he said, and added cooperation between the Kingdom and US authorities was very good.
The minister added that although security had been beefed up, there was no need for a curfew in Saudi cities in the wake of the terrorist acts. “We do not need to impose such procedures,” he said.
