Saudi king says determined to fight extremism

Saudi security arrests son of human rights activist, 50 others in northern province of Qassim.

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia is determined to halt extremism and has foiled a number of terror plots inside the kingdom, King Abdullah said on Sunday.

"In domestic policy, the government continues to expend its efforts to strengthen security," the king said in his annual speech to the Shura Council, the country's consultative assembly.

"A special effort has been made to confront the thinking of the group of deviants, extremists and terrorists," he said, using language the government usually employs to identify Al-Qaeda.

"The security services have had repeated successes with preventative actions, and will continue their activities to foil the terrorist plots, eradicate the deviant groups, and dry up the sources of terrorism," he said.

Meanwhile, a Saudi human rights group said on Sunday that security officials had arrested the son of one of its founders and more than 50 other people in the northern province of Qassim.

"Thamer Abdulkareem Al-Khather was arrested Wednesday evening for unknown reasons," the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) said in a statement.

Thamer, whose father Abdulkareem Al-Khather is one of the founders of ACPRA, Thamer, is a university student and member of "the youth movement that calls for a constitutional reform" in the absolute monarchy, the statement said.

It described him as "interested in human rights" and "an advocate of prisoners' rights."

He was arrested by the interior ministry's General Investigation Directorate (DGI), they said.

"Al-Khather and his son, Thamer, have been constantly harassed by the DGI's clandestine detectives a week before Thamer's arrest."

The same statement reported a campaign of arrests carried out in Buraidah, Qassim's provincial capital, which targeted over 50 people, mainly youths and adolescents.

"We don't know why they were arrested, they arrested entire families and they still have some of the fathers, Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani, a founder of ACPRA, said.

ACPRA was formed by 11 activists in 2009 to pursue democratic and legal reforms and promote human rights in the absolute monarchy.

Saudi Arabia has two officially sanctioned human rights organizations, both created in 2004. One is fully controlled by the government while the other operates more independently.

The independent groups ACPRA and the Human Rights First Society operate without permission.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37675.