JEDDAH, 8 March 2007 — The two Saudis suspected of involvement in the Feb. 26 murder of four French nationals failed to meet yesterday’s 8 a.m. deadline to surrender peacefully to Saudi authorities for questioning.
Nasser Latef Al-Balawi and Abdullah Sayer Al-Muhammadi failed to appear before authorities yesterday and are now considered fugitives from the law.
Authorities have detained an unspecified number of other suspects in the investigation. Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication to Arab News, reported yesterday that relatives of the two men have been detained for questioning. An uncle of Al-Muhammadi claims the two men have been missing since the attack.
Saudi political analyst and columnist Bader Almotawa told Arab News yesterday that a message posted by Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia on the Internet site “Voice of Jihad” a few days before the attack on the French nationals vowed to oust “crusaders” from the Arabian Peninsula using “new methods.”
“It seems clear that the cold-blooded murder of the Frenchmen was a response to the message posted on the site,” said Almotawa. “Since the government has placed a tight hold on their movement, Al-Qaeda operatives or sympathizers here act on that message by performing whatever terror acts they are capable of, such as the cowardly act of killing the four Frenchmen.”
Almotawa said he believed the people behind the attack on the French nationals could carry out more attacks not only on Westerners but also on prominent Saudi figures.
The French Embassy also said yesterday it has been warned by Saudi authorities that the group behind last week’s killing of the Frenchmen might strike again.
The French Embassy in Riyadh has warned its nationals in the Kingdom to take additional security measures after it said the embassy received a warning letter from the Saudi Foreign Ministry.
“As soon as we received the warning letter we informed our nationals in the Kingdom of the new threat on the embassy’s website and via SMS text messages,” Alian Guepratte, second secretary at the French Embassy told Arab News.
He also said French nationals here were informed that the warning letter was based on another letter sent to the Saudi Foreign Affairs Ministry from the Interior Ministry.
“French nationals have been asked to report any suspicious acts directly to the local police, the consulate in Jeddah, or the embassy in Riyadh,” he added.
The diplomat said that the warning letter was not sent to the French Embassy alone, but to all embassies in Saudi Arabia and consulates general. The US Embassy issued a warden’s message on Tuesday saying it had received a similar warning from the Saudi government.
“The embassy has been notified by Saudi authorities that embassy personnel should defer travel to desert areas in northern Saudi Arabia from Madinah, north to Qurayat, and in the vicinity of the ruins at Madain Saleh until further notice,” said the statement posted on the embassy website.
The French nationals were killed when assailants in a car opened fired on a group of nine French nationals after the group visited the historic site of Madain Saleh on Feb. 26. Two of the men in the group died on the spot. A third man died a day later in hospital. The fourth victim was a 17-year-old boy.
