Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Saudi Arabia: Terrorists or Political activists?

Saudi reform activists arrested in February on suspicion of funding terrorism were considering forming a political grouping in the kingdom, where parties are banned, a prominent reformer said on Tuesday.

"Some of the men ... were interacting and discussing an idea revolving around the possibility of creating a political forum (party)," Matruk al-Faleh said in a statement sent to Reuters."The arrests seem to abort the very idea itself," said the politics professor, who was jailed in 2005 over his calls for political reform.

Faleh, now released, said they wanted to
"to concretely push the democratic reform movement".

Sorry, pal. Not in, Saudi Arabia, that hotbed of liberty and justice for all.