al Harbi Notes from 2004

JEDDAH, 17 July 2004 — Saudi authorities took a wanted militant into custody after he finally arrived from the Syrian capital where he had earlier surrendered to the Saudi Embassy, according to his brother, Fawaz Al-Harbi.

Ibrahim Al-Sadek Al-Kaydi Al-Harbi, 33, who is not on the list of 26 most wanted terrorists, is the fourth militant to turn himself in under a one-month amnesty offered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd, on June 23 to extremists who surrender.

• Fawaz said Ibrahim called the family a week ago from Damascus, expressing his desire to give himself up.
• Ibrahim told them that he had gone to the Saudi Embassy in Syria to hand himself in but officials there had asked him to wait at his house until they made contact with details for his return to the Kingdom. After waiting for four days, Ibrahim decided to make the call and arrange everything from here.

“I called one of my friends that helped me contact Assistant Interior Minister Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, who made the necessary arrangements within 24 hours. Ibrahim handed himself in and arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. I haven’t met him yet,” Fawaz said.

Prince Muhammad ordered the arrangements for Ibrahim’s return to be sped up after the Saudi Embassy in Damascus failed to deliver promptly, he said.

Al-Harbi reportedly went to Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s and was also in Bosnia, where he was wounded, according to his brother. He returned to Saudi Arabia before dropping out of sight in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Fawaz claimed his brother is not a member of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror network and had no links with the extremist cells blamed for a wave of violence, which has killed some 90 people and wounded hundreds since May 2003.

Another brother, Abdul Ghaffar who worked at the Passport Department said Ibrahim had come to him in 2001 before disappearing and asked for a new passport. Abdul Ghaffar said after checking his file, he discovered that Ibrahim was wanted by security authorities and had a 10-year ban on traveling abroad.

Thirteen militants on the most wanted list remain at large, down from the original 26 when it was issued last December. The others have been either killed in clashes with security forces or surrendered, including one who gave himself up under the amnesty offer.

On Tuesday, Khaled ibn Odeh ibn Mohammed Al-Harbi, alias Abu Suleiman Al-Makki, presumed to be a top Al-Qaeda figure close to Osama Bin Laden, was flown back to Saudi Arabia after turning himself in to his country’s embassy in Iran.

Source: ArabNews