RIYADH: The government of Saudi Arabia had no role in an attack on opposition figure Saad Faqih, Riyadh's embassy in London said Tuesday. "We categorically reject any claim that the kingdom's government had a hand in the attack. These are baseless claims," the statement said.
Faqih, spokesman for the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), said he was wounded at his London home late Sunday by two men carrying a "message from the Saudi government." "We have expressed our deep concern to the British Foreign Office over the attack on Saad Faqih," the embassy statement added. "We have also expressed our concern over the safety of all Saudi citizens living in Britain and (stressed) that their safety is the responsibility of the British government," it said.
| "So don't come whining to us when they come whining to you..." |
A spokesman for Saint Mary's Hospital in north London, where Faqih was treated, said Monday he had apparently been knifed but that his wounds were "not very serious." Saudi Arabia has dismissed as "baseless" allegations it was involved in an assault on a Saudi dissident in London. The exile, Saad al-Faqih, has been quoted as saying that two men came to his apartment on Sunday and tried to kidnap him. He grappled with them as a neighbor called the police. Before fleeing, one assailant said "This is a message from the Saudi government," al-Faqih told the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera. British police say they are investigating an assault on al-Faqih at his north London home, after which he was treated in hospital for a leg injury.
| That story has the whiff of flounder about it... |
Faqih described the attackers as "East London gangsters."
| Named Muggsy, Butch, Spike, and Slick... |
"The Saudi Arabians, who claim to fight terrorism, are doing terrorism themselves in the British land," Faqih told Reuters in an interview on Monday from his home after returning from hospital. |