Saudi Arabian specialised anti-terror court announces 325 appeals by terrorist suspects

Arab News reports that a special anti-terror court in Riyadh has so far issued preliminary verdicts on 442 cases involving 765 Al-Qaeda militants, the Justice Ministry said Saturday, adding that the terror suspects appealed 325 verdicts. The ministry’s spokesman, Abdullah Al-Saadan, said the militants were facing charges such as association with Al-Qaeda, participation in terrorism, [...]

Saudi Arabia expresses frustration on non-refoulement policies of Europe

Cable 09JEDDAH343 describes a meeting between Saudi Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of  Interior Prince Nayif bin Abdulaziz (reftel), John Brennan,  Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and  Counterterrorism in which Nayif expressed frustration with the limited  cooperation of friendly European nations with whom the  Kingdom has security agreements. The governments, he  complained, [...]

Saudi Arabia is still key player in fight against terrorism

Western intelligence officials say the Saudis’ own experience with jihadists has helped them develop powerful surveillance tools and a broad network of informers that has become increasingly important in the global battle against terrorism.

Saudi king limits fatwas

A Saudi royal order limiting the number of religious rulings, or fatwas, that can be issued is an attempt to bring order to what has become a chaotic field since the advent of satellite television and the Internet, analysts say. King Abdullah’s decree, issued Thursday, prohibits anyone other than Islamic scholars appointed by him from [...]

Governments threaten to suspend Blackberry services

The UAE, which includes the business centres of Dubai  and Abu Dhabi, said it would prevent BlackBerry services such as email, web browsing and text messaging from October, after first raising concerns with the Canadian manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) three years ago. The ban will extend to visitors to the UAE who take their [...]

Saudi to codify Sharia and reform criminal law system: more clarity in terrorism-related trials

Saudi Arabia’s top religious body has given the green light to codify the largely unwritten Sharia regulations governing the kingdom’s criminal, civil and family courts in order to bring more clarity and uniformity to judicial rulings. The codification project is part of a major overhaul of the country’s legal system initiated three years ago by [...]

25 recidivism cases among Saudi ex-Guantanamo prisoners

25 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have rejoined Islamic extremist groups after going through a rehabilitation program in Saudi Arabia aimed at decreasing religious radicalism within the country, according to Abdulrahman al-Hadlaq, a top Saudi security expert. Out of the 25 former Guantanamo detainees who returned to extremist activities, 11 were believed to have joined an [...]

Petraeus lauds Saudi Fatwa condemning terrorism financing

War on Terrorism reports that Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, praised Saudi Arabia’s religious leaders for taking a major step toward promoting broader counterterrorism cooperation by their recent rejection of financing terrorism as un-Islamic. Petraeus lauded the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia’s recent issuance of a fatwa that, [...]

Saudi Arabia religious leaders call terrorism financing un-Islamic

Saudi Arabia’s top religious leaders have condemned terrorism financing as forbidden by Islamic law, giving added religious weight and potentially larger punishments to existing civil statutes.

UPI report: “Terror financing: still hard nut to crack”

United Press International discusses the strategies undertaken by the US in order to contrast the financing of terrorism. Quote: The European Union plans to get together with the United States next month to hammer out a new pact to disrupt the financing networks of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. The U.S. Treasury Department has been [...]