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| Arabia | |
| Saudi Cleric Seeks Extension of Amnesty | |
| 2004-07-14 | |
(stall game) "We feel a bit pressed and that time is not enough," Safar al-Hawaly, 49, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the southern Saudi province of al-Baha. (More baloney) On June 23, King Fahd offered an amnesty to militants who surrendered within a month of the announcement, saying they would not face the death penalty if they turned themselves in. The offer followed a spate of deadly al-Qaida-linked attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting foreign interests and state authorities. A U.S. citizen -- engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr. -- was abducted in June and beheaded. Al-Hawaly said Khaled al-Harby, a confidant of bin Laden who returned to Saudi Arabia from Iran on Tuesday in response to the amnesty, had contacted him before surrendering. Al-Hawaly said he supervised the talks regarding al-Harby's return to the kingdom. Al-Hawaly said he and numerous other negotiators have contacted Saudi officials and requested that the amnesty be extended. "We have talked to officials about that, but the decision is theirs and we can only hope for the best," al-Hawaly told the AP, adding that if he was given more time, "at least a handful of others will surrender." The cleric said he was "very, very" optimistic that if the amnesty was extended, terror attacks in Saudi Arabia would stop. | |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |