JEDDAH, 8 April 2004 — Police have arrested a former national soccer player suspected of planning to join militant groups fighting the US-led occupation forces in Iraq.
Sulaiman Al-Hudaithy, who a few seasons ago was a leading scorer with Jeddah’s Al-Ittihad football club and who has played in the national team, was detained here three months ago.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, Al-Hudaithy’s brother, Saleh, said: “My brother regrets his actions. What he was trying to do was wrong. We are confident that the justice system here will be fair to us.”
He said Assistant Deputy Interior Minister Prince Muhammad ibn Naif had been in contact with the family. “Al-Hudaithy regrets the decision because it had not been sanctioned by the authorities,” Saleh said.
He said the police were “very cooperative” with the family. “My brother is loyal to his country and he does not belong to any suspect group,” he said.
Al-Hudaithy is a married man with children. Before moving to Jeddah, he played for Al-Najma Club in Qasim.
Thousands of young Saudis left the Kingdom in the 1980s to support the Afghan mujahedeen who were fighting the Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan. Many are also believed to have fought in conflicts in the Balkans and Chechnya.
Saleh denied reports his brother had been arrested at the Syrian-Iraqi border. His teammates said he had become very withdrawn and had not been to the club for more than four months. The owner of the building where Al-Hudaithy lived said the player had never had large numbers of guests in his apartment.
“Even after he became very religious, there was no change in his customs,” he said. “I last saw him about a year ago when he moved to his new house in Bawadi,” he added.
