Abducted Saudi diplomat asks king to meet Al Qaeda demands

May 26, 2012

Sana'a: A Saudi diplomat appeared in an online video Saturday for the first time since he was kidnapped in March and asked Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to meet the demands made by the Al Qaeda to secure his release.

Abdullah al-Khaledi, Saudi Arabia's deputy consul in Yemen's southern port city Aden, was abducted by the Al Qaeda in March outside his residential building, Xinhua reported.

In April, the terrorist group demanded the release of militants held in prisons in Saudi capital Riyadh in exchange for releasing al-Khaledi.

The middle-aged diplomat, dressed in traditional Saudi attire in the four-minute video, made an emotional appeal to the Saudi king.

"My life is in your hands. I appeal to you to respond to the demands of Al Qaeda," he said.

"I urge Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and the Saudi authorities to save my life and secure my release from the Al Qaeda's hands," he said in a short video posted online.

"You should accept the Al Qaeda's demands of releasing its detainees in Saudi jails," he said.

Al-Khaledi has been moved to an Al Qaeda hideout in the southern province of Abyan or Shabwa, local media reported.

The Saudi government has announced it "will not bow to the terrorists' demands".

The Al Qaeda has also kidnapped a Swiss woman and a French aid worker in the past two months in a bid to force the Yemeni government to release its jailed members from Yemeni prisons.