10 held on suspicion of fundraising for terror groups

Saudi police have arrested 10 people for collecting donations and recruiting on behalf of militant groups, the interior ministry spokesman said today.

The arrests follow claims in the US bipartisan Iraq Study Group report issued in December that Saudi Arabia has been a source of funding for the Sunni insurgency in Iraq since the US-led invasion of Iraq deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a statement on January 22 warning against collecting donations for groups not registered with the government.

“Security special forces, as part of their efforts in fighting terrorism and its funding, managed to arrest a group of people carrying out illegal activities including collecting donations illegally ... and sending them to suspected parties,” Mansour al-Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

Recipients of the donations used the money in “dragging the sons of the nation to disturbed places”, the statement said, apparently referring to Iraq.

Seven Saudi citizens were arrested Friday night while meeting in a house in the Western port city of Jiddah, according to the spokesman. The other two Saudis were detained in separate raids in Jiddah and the holy city of Medina.

The spokesman did not provide additional information on the detainees’ identities, but said that they are under interrogation. He also said that it was not clear yet whether they belonged to al Qaida. He did not give the nationality of the tenth.

The Iraq Study Group gave Iraqi officials as the source of the claim that money has been pouring into Iraq from Saudi Arabia since April 2003. Saudi officials vehemently deny those claims.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s neighbour to the south, is predominantly Sunni. It was also the home to 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers.