Saudis hold hijack link suspect

A 21-year-old Saudi man the FBI alleges has links to the September 11 hijackers is being held by security officials, authorities in the kingdom said today.

Saud Abdulaziz Saud al-Rasheed is being questioned, "and if it is proven that he was connected to terrorism, he will be referred to the sharia (Islamic) court", the official Saudi Press Agency quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying.

On Saturday, al-Rasheed’s father said his son had surrendered voluntarily to the Interior Ministry on Thursday in his hometown of Riyadh.

The ministry official said al-Rasheed has been in custody since Thursday, but did not say if he surrendered or was detained.

Initial investigations had shown al-Rasheed travelled to Afghanistan in June 2000 and returned to Saudi Arabia the following June, but that he had never travelled to America, the agency said.

Al-Rasheed’s father said his son had surrendered after learning of the FBI’s worldwide alert for his arrest.

The FBI said al-Rasheed was suspected of being “associated with the September 11, 2001 hijackers” and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

The alert was issued after an image of al-Rasheed’s Saudi passport was found among material “previously recovered during the war on terrorism” connected to the hijackers.