The Interior Ministry has warned anyone who may have positively responded to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri’s calls for donations that they will be penalized if they do not contact the ministry within a week to clarify their position.In a statement issued yesterday, a ministry spokesman said it had obtained information about citizens and residents who received the voice message sent by Al-Qaeda’s second in command, while questioning 28 terror suspects arrested last week. “The bearer of this message is one of our trusted brothers; therefore, please give him your donations to help hundreds of families of captives and martyrs in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Al-Zawahri said in the audio recording sent with a man who had come to the Kingdom to visit Makkah.
“The ministry calls upon all those who have established contacts with him on the basis of the message to inform it through telephone No. 990 within a week,” the statement said, adding that the grace period would end on Saturday evening.
The spokesman said contacting the ministry was essential to prove their innocence and clarify their position. “Measures will be taken in accordance with the law against the suspects after the expiry of the grace period,” he added.
Security agents found Al-ZawahriÂ’s message on the memory card of a mobile phone of one of the 28 terror suspects whose arrest was announced March 3.
Since December 2007, Saudi security forces have arrested 56 suspects of different nationalities for allegedly planning to attack sites outside the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah during the last Haj season.
The men were reportedly in the process of rebuilding Al-Qaeda terror network in the Kingdom to launch another campaign of terror across the country.
The spokesman said investigations proved that the newly detained militants belonged to Al-Qaeda and had been in contact with its leadership abroad. They were also recruiting young men and sending them to different regions of the Kingdom to participate in activities that undermine the security of Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the KingdomÂ’s top religious authority, asked wealthy people to exercise vigilance on where they donate their money.
He also warned young Muslims against becoming tools in the hands of foreign groups “which play with their feelings in the name of jihad.”
The mufti warned Saudis against giving money to charities and organizations that finance suspicious groups. “It is bad to give funds to just anyone who asks and to parties with shabby reputations or unknown backing,” the mufti said in a statement carried by Okaz newspaper. “It’s even worse to give it to an organization that is known for its evil and for hurting Islam and its followers,” he added, in an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda, which is blamed for a series of terror attacks in the Kingdom since May 2003.