By RASHA AL QAHTANI
A POLITICAL group will hold a demonstration outside the UN building in Hoora on Saturday, to demand the release of three Bahrainis being held in Saudi Arabia.
They include freed Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdulla Majid Al Nuaimi, 27, who was arrested at a Saudi checkpoint at the King Fahad Causeway last month.
The National Justice Movement is also campaigning for the release of Abdulrahim Al Murbati and Khalil Janahi.
They are believed to have been included in a list of nearly 1,000 Al Qaeda suspects accused of carrying out “acts of war” against Saudi Arabia.
Father-of-six Mr Al Murbati was arrested in Riyadh in June 2003 and Mr Janahi in April this year.
Government officials and human rights activists from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been contacted to draw attention to the importance of the cases.
“We haven’t heard if our government made any move in demanding the Saudi authorities to release Mr Al Nuaimi and they in turn have not given any details on his arrest,” said the group’s freedom committee head Mohammed Janahi.
“We are holding this demonstration to highlight the situation to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
The three-hour demonstration will be held from 3pm and will be attended by the group’s secretary-general Abdulla Hashim, members and other activists.
“The aim of the demonstration is to present a letter to the high commission demanding that they find solutions and secure the release of the Bahraini detainees,” said Mr Janahi.
He said that when Bahraini citizens go to Saudi they can be very vulnerable and get arrested for unknown reasons for a long period of time without being charged.
“There have to be certain boundaries and the Bahrain government and the UN commission must work together to find solutions because the situation is getting out of hand,” said Mr Janahi.
“I have contacted the Bahrain Foreign Ministry and they said that they will look into the matter and send protocol messages to the Saudi authorities.
“I also spoke to human rights organisations in Saudi and we sent them letters describing the situation to them and requesting their help.
“I have also contacted the Bahrain Embassy in Saudi and they have said that they will look into the issue carefully.”
Mr Janahi said that it was the third time Mr Al Nuaimi had gone to Saudi since he was released from Guantanamo Bay and he had not faced any problems previously.
He claimed that on the last trip, Mr Al Nuaimi was going Saudi to purchase goods for his electric store.
Mr Al Nuaimi’s family had said that it had still not received a clear reason for his arrest.
His father Majid said that he was told by Saudi security officials that Abdulla would be out as soon as release papers were signed by the authorities concerned.
Majid said that he was not told of the reasons for the arrest, but added that it seemed his son could be released soon.
Mr Al Nuaimi had been detained in Guantanamo without trial for more than four years on terror suspicions.
He returned to Bahrain on November 5, 2005, with fellow detainees Adel Kamel Hajee and Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa.
Salah Al Balooshi was freed and returned to Bahrain in October 2006, while the last Bahraini detainee Isa Al Murbati returned home in August last year.
They were all held on terror suspicions but none was charged nor tried.
rasha@gdn.com.bh
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