Saturday, Oct 10, 2015
Manama: The list of the nationalities of terror suspects arrested in Saudi Arabia reads like members of the United Nations, showin how prevalent terrorism has become.
It also indicates how terror groups are recruiting elements from new countries to avoid raising suspicions and evade arrests, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Monday.
Official figures put the number of terror suspects arrested in Saudi Arabia in the last six years at 4,777.
The list includes citizens from Trinidad and Tobago, Kirgizstan, Nigeria, Algeria, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and China.
Yemenis top the list with 306 suspects, followed by Syrians with 135, Pakistanis with 43, and Egyptians with 35, the interior ministry said.
The list also includes 23 Chadians and Eritreans, 15 Jordanians, 13 Indians, 11 Bahrainis, nine Ethiopians, seven Iraqis, six Sudanese, four Palestinians and three Somalis.
Earlier this year, the authorities have also arrested two Filipinos, two Qataris, two Algerians, one American, one French and Briton.
In the last four months, 906 Saudis were arrested over terror-linked activities.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia said authorities had arrested a Syrian man and a Filipina for making bombs and explosive belts in a residential area in the capital Riyadh.
A spokesperson for the interior ministry said that the police, acting on information about the existence of a workshop inside a house in Al Fayha District in Riyadh, raided the place and arrested the Syrian man, Mohammad Shafiq Al Barazi who had entered the Saudi kingdom in 2010.
The police also arrested a Filipina who was staying illegally in the country who sewed and helped prepare explosive belts. The Filipina, identified as Lady Joy, had eloped from her employer around 15 months ago, the spokesperson added.
By Habib Toumi Bureau Chief
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