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JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia | Mon Jul 23, 2012
(Reuters) - Five al Qaeda-linked
women detainees have been freed by Saudi authorities but the move was not
linked to demands by the al Qaeda captors of a Saudi diplomat in Yemen, the
government said on Monday.
Abdullah al-Khalidi, the Saudi deputy consul in the southern Yemeni port
city of Aden, was kidnapped outside his residence on March 28. His captors
demanded a ransom and the release of detainees held in Saudi prisons but the
government said in April that it could not negotiate with al Qaeda.
Khalidi has appeared in two videos since then, posted on the internet,
begging King Abdullah to meet his captors' demand for the release of women
detainees.
"Release those women, they release me the next day," he said
in the second video posted earlier this month.
The women, who were held by Saudi security services, are relatives of al
Qaeda fighters, Khalidi said.
Asked if they were released to meet the demands of Khalidi's captors,
Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said: "The investigation
bureau and public prosecution office decided to release two of the women
detainees by court order as they were (pregnant) and close to their due
dates."
The other three were released on bail on Saturday pending trial, he
said. One more woman detainee is serving a jail sentence.
In April, a militant who claimed responsibility for Khalidi's kidnapping
threatened to kill him unless a ransom was paid and al Qaeda prisoners were
freed from Saudi jails.
"We cannot consider this release as heeding to demands of the
captors because, on principal, states do not accept to be subject to
blackmail," said a Saudi official who declined to be named.
"There was a coincidence between the release of the women detainees
on humanitarian grounds and the demands of the captors."
The government hopes the move will prompt Khalidi's captors to release
him on humanitarian grounds, the official said.
The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting
alarm as Islamist fighters, emboldened by political instability in Yemen,
gained ground in the south of the country in the past year.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - the name of the al Qaeda group
operating in Yemen - is seen by U.S. officials as the most dangerous offshoot
of the global militant network.
