Saudis 'no' to foreign interrogation of suspects

Saudi Arabia will not allow foreign security personnel to interrogate 13 detained al Qaida suspects, a Saudi official has said.

‘‘It is out of the question. It is a matter of sovereignty, and not a single foreigner will be given access to them,’’ the official told the Associated Press in Dubai.

He said foreign security officials would be briefed on the results of the investigations ‘‘within the framework of fighting terrorism’’.

The official said that sentences would be issued within a period of ‘‘two to five months’’.

Yesterday, the government-guided Okaz daily quoted unidentified security sources as saying that only Saudis would have access to the suspects because ‘‘the crimes that they committed or planned to carry out occurred or were going to take place on Saudi territories’’.

Asked about the Saudi refusal to allow non-Saudis to interrogate the suspects, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in Washington: ‘‘We’re going to continue to work co-operatively with the Saudis on a host of issues. Saudi co-operation has been strong and we’ll continue to work with them.’’

The 13 suspects were arrested a few months ago, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. But the government only announced the arrests, the first al Qaida-related detentions since September 11, on Tuesday.

The government has said the suspects were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against vital installations in the kingdom by using explosives and two surface-to-air SA-7 missiles smuggled into the kingdom and hidden in different places around the country.

In May, Saudi security guards found a missile launcher tube about two miles from a runway at Prince Sultan Air Base, the US military’s regional command-and-control centre and home to about 4,500 US troops and several military aircraft.

The suspects include six Saudis and a Sudanese man - apparently the main plotters - as well as five other Saudis and an Iraqi, according to SPA.

The London-based Al-Hayat said the Sudanese, believed to be an al Qaida cell leader, fled the kingdom through Iraq after firing an anti-aircraft missile at a US warplane in Saudi Arabia in May.

He apparently made his way to Sudan, which announced earlier this week he had been transferred from Sudan to Saudi Arabia for trial.

‘‘We know that the Iraqi government was not aware of the issue,’’ said the Saudi official.

Okaz said the Sudanese had confessed that he and six Saudis arrested with him were linked to al Qaida and that they ‘‘received orders to carry out criminal plans and terrorist acts against vital installations in the kingdom.’’ It said the six Saudis had returned from Afghanistan, but did not say when.

Afghanistan was the base of terror suspect Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaida network until he was forced underground by a US-led bombing campaign following the September 11 attacks for which he is blamed. Bin Laden’s whereabouts now are unknown.

The Sudanese man was identified by US officials as Abu Huzifa. Sudan has said the man has acknowledged firing an SA-7 missile at a US warplane at Prince Sultan Air Base.

The arrests prove that ‘‘Saudi authorities are fighting terrorism both here and abroad’’, although not in a ‘‘flamboyant and self-congratulatory’’ way, said Mohammed Alkhereiji, a journalist in the kingdom.

‘‘They also show that we co-operate fully with Western governments when the cause is just,’’ he said.

Saudi Arabia has in the past resisted what it sees as outside interference in its justice system, and in doing so caused tension with the United States.

Since September 11, there has been criticism in the United States at what is seen as too little effort by the Saudis to hunt down terrorists.

It took five months before the kingdom acknowledged that 15 of the September 11 hijackers were Saudi.

It has not taken part in a worldwide asset freeze of accounts linked to bin Laden or changed laws - as other Gulf states have - to crack down on money transferring or Islamic banking practices that al Qaida may be abusing.

Privately owned Al-Hayat newspaper reported that the weapons and explosives that the suspects planned to use in their attacks were smuggled in from neighbouring Yemen.

Weapons are sold freely in Yemen and several suspected al Qaida members are believed to have found shelter in the area in the country along the border with Saudi Arabia. The border area is largely controlled by armed tribes.