Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Saudi diplomat recently freed from captivity in Yemen revealed on Tuesday he was treated badly by his Al-Qaeda captors.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat Saudi Deputy Consul Abdullah Al-Khalidi said he was “guiltlessly” kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in front of his residence in the Mansourah neighborhood of the southern city of Aden.
“I was treated inhumanely by my AQAP captors,” he said.
Khalidi, who was seized by AQAP in March 2012, returned to the Kingdom on Monday following “intensive efforts made by the presidency of the General Intelligence service,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, received the freed diplomat on Tuesday at the Yamama Palace in Riyadh where he awarded him the Order of Abdulaziz Al Saud of the third class.
Over the past few years, Saudi security services, working in close coordination with Yemeni authorities, have managed to secure the release of Saudis and foreigners kidnapped by AQAP as well as locate several of the terrorist group’s leaders.
Saudi Arabia secured the release of two German girls in 2010 after they were taken captive by AQAP. In the same year, Saudi authorities foiled a plot to detonate two explosive packages on board cargo planes bound from Yemen to the US.
