AlJazeera.net (Qatar) : "Rights group slams Saudi detentions"

Rights group slams Saudi detentions

Saudi Arabia has carried out a wave of arrests after attacks on expatriate residential compounds [AFP]
 

Saudi security forces are secretly holding more than 3,000 suspected members of al-Qaeda and other groups as part of a sweeping crackdown on "terrorism" in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, Amnesty International has said.

In a report published on Wednesday, the human rights group said Saudi Arabia used torture to extract confessions and criticised the international community for turning a blind eye to the kingdom's methods.

Malcolm Smart, the head of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme, said: "These unjust anti-terrorism measures have made an already dire human rights situation worse."

Saudi Arabia has arrested thousands of suspected members of al-Qaeda, which is accused of carrying out a string of attacks against expatriate residential compounds, oil facilities and government buildings in the country.

Abdulrahman Alhadlaq, the Saudi Arabian interior ministry official, defended...............


http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/200972249299...