Saudi Arabia sentences protestors to jail and lashes

AFP ^ | November 22, 2003 | AFP

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, (AFP) - Seven people who took part in demonstrations last month in Saudi Arabia have been sentenced to jail terms, a newspaper reported.

The defendants will serve between one and three months in prison and were "ordered to sign an agreement that they would never again engage in the same offense," Arab News reported.

Five defendants were jailed for a month, while two other defendants -- a Saudi and Sudanese national -- received two and three month prison terms.

The Saudi national will also be lashed 60 times "for not confessing nor acknowledging that he had done any damage to public welfare."

The Sudanese citizen will be deported after serving his jail term.

The Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), called for and succeeded in organising demonstrations in Saudi Arabia in October with several hundred people taking to the streets on October 14, in a rare protest calling for reforms.

The protests mounted during a human rights conference, the first to be held in the kingdom, led to the arrest of 271 people, of whom 188 were freed and 83 remain in custody, according to the interior ministry.

At the end of October Saudi security forces detained more than 70 demonstrators to halt fresh protests called by MIRA.

Five women were among some 50 people detained in Jeddah, another 13 were picked up in Hail, north of Riyadh, and at least 10 were arrested in Dammam in the oil-rich Eastern Province, witnesses said.

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

The Saudi national will also be lashed 60 times "for not confessing nor acknowledging that he had done any damage to public welfare."

Swell bunch of fellas, these desert rats.

[thoughtomator]

Should have them deal with the kooks in London!

[piasa]

Reformists, eh? don't be too sure about that.

FEBRUARY 1996 : (UK LABOUR MP GALLOWAY FLIES TO MOROCCO ON BEHALF OF AL-FAGIH TO MEET CROWN PRINCE OF MOROCCO) In February 1996, UK Labour MP George Galloway flew to Morocco for a secret meeting with the then Crown Prince of Morocco to explore a deal between the Islamic Saudi dissidents [such as British-based Saudi dissident Saad al-Fagih, an Islamic fundamentalist who purchased a satellite phone used by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan] and the Saudi royal family. - "MP may be tried as traitor (Galloway)," by Antony Barnett and Martin Bright, The Observer (U.K.) , 04/27/03 [Galloway would later be involved in Oil for Food scandal... being paid by Iraq and his opposition to the Coalition war on Iraq of 2003]

**********

... Two of the men contacted by Bin Laden in Britain — Khaled al Fawwaz and Ibrahim Eidarous — are now in prison awaiting extradition to the United States for their part in the embassy bombings, which killed 224 and injured thousands.
However, another senior terrorist suspect, Mustafa Nazar, is still on the loose. He spent up to two years in Dollis Hill, north London, recruiting for Al-Qaeda. A key figure in Bin Laden’s terror training camps, he left Britain in 1998 and was last seen in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Taliban.
The telephone records have come to light following the trial last year of four Al-Qaeda terrorists who planned and carried out the bombing of the two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
According to trial documents, the telephone [the one bin Laden used] was bought in 1996 with the help of Dr Saad al Fagih, 45, a bearded surgeon who heads the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia. This fundamentalist Muslim group is dedicated to the overthrow of the Saudi Arabian government but is not part of Al-Qaeda.
Al Fagih, who has been regularly used by the BBC as an expert on Bin Laden, has in the past explained that Muslim scholars said the killing of civilians, including children, was allowed by the Koran as “collateral damage” in the holy war.
It was al Fagih’s credit card which was used to help to buy the £10,500 Compact-M satellite phone in the United States and it was shipped to his home in north London, according to American court documents. His credit card was also used to buy more than 3,000 minutes of pre-paid airtime.
Last week al Fagih, who has not been arrested or charged in connection with any of these actions, said: “I am willing to speak to the authorities if they ask me about this or any other issue, but not to the press.” ...------ "Bin Laden called UK 260 times," by Nick Fielding and Dipesh Gadhery, The Sunday Times (U.K.), 03/24/2002

********************************

U.K. Freezes Assets of Group Linked With Saudi Exile Al-Faqih Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government told its central bank to freeze the assets of an organization it suspects of having links with Saad al-Faqih, a Saudi Arabian dissident living in exile in Britain. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown instructed the Bank of England to direct British financial institutions to immediately freeze funds belonging to the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, the Treasury said in a statement. The Treasury said it has ``reasonable grounds'' for suspecting the organization is acting on behalf of al-Faqih, who was listed Dec. 23 by the United Nations as being an associate of al-Qaeda....
---------- "U.K. Freezes Assets of Group Linked With Saudi Exile Al-Faqih," by Sam Fleming in London, Bloomberg.net , December 24, 2004 08:15 EST

***********************************

Al-Faqih, who advocates replacing the Saudi monarchy with a popularly elected government, heads the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia in London. He claimed in May that he was the real target when the Saudi Arabian government accused British civilians and diplomats of involvement in bombings four years ago.
According to a U.S. Treasury statement on Tuesday, Al-Faqih once shared an office in the late 1990s with Khaled al Fawwaz, who served as an operative for bin Laden in Britain. The exiled Saudi physician also paid for a satellite phone that bin Laden allegedly used to help carry out the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya Tanzania, it said.
While al-Faqih's movement has issued disclaimers warning users not to attribute postings on its website to al-Qaida, the Treasury statement said extremists use the site "to post all al-Qaida-related statements and images."
Information available to the U.S. and British governments "shows that the messages are intended to provide ideological and financial support to al-Qaida affiliated networks and potential recruits," it said. ...------- "U.N. asked to punish two Saudi activists," by Edith M. Lederer - AP, Bakersfield Californian, 12/21/04