By Badr Almotawa - JEDDAH, 1 February — American authorities have released a group of 10 Saudi prisoners who were jailed following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, according to a senior official of the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
Ahmad Al-Qattan, director general of the office of the Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, told Arab News yesterday that 23 students are still in American prisons. The reason for their detention is that their names resemble those on the list of suspects for the terrorist attacks earlier released by the US authorities.
Al-Qattan said 34 students in various US cities are awaiting the assessment of their residence status, while 57 students have already left for the Kingdom.
The names of the 10 students released by the ambassador yesterday included Khaled Khashoggi, Saleh Al-Qahtani, Faisal Al-Qahtani, Hasan Nagour, Jamil Al-Soleimani, Ahmad Matar, Muhammad Saeed Ahmad, and Bassam Al-Suweigh.
They will soon leave for the Kingdom. Two others have also been released, but are awaiting for the case against them to be formally closed. The official also said 20 Saudis are reported missing. "But we have found several of them. They were moving from one state to another without informing their relatives in the Kingdom about their whereabouts," he added.
In his statement to Arab News, Al-Qattan said that a few days after a meeting with the secretary for immigration a group of 14 Saudi prisoners were released. This was followed by another group of 11 Saudis.
In a meeting with the immigration secretary, Al-Qattan explained in detail the cases of Saudi students and citizens who were harassed by the American authorities.
The embassy has spent SR11 million as fees to lawyers, payment of fines, general assistance to Saudis and on the price of airline tickets, he added.
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=12495