Saudi Intellectuals in Rare Appeal to King to Release Activists

Saudi intellectuals have made a rare public appeal to King Abdullah to release a group of reformists said to have been falsely accused of financing terrorism.

A petition signed by 76 public figures called on the country's human rights commission to free 10 Islamist activists held since February because they had allegedly collected donations for "suspicious elements" - an apparent reference to helping insurgents in Iraq, where many jihadis are Saudis. Lawyers and colleagues of the men claim the arrests were designed to scupper plans to establish a political group.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that has taken tentative steps towards reform, including holding male-only elections in 2005 to choose half the members of local councils. It has no parties or elections to its parliament, and political life is dominated by the royal family. Its intimate ties with the US and soaring oil prices have shielded it from pressure to change.

Neither the detentions nor the campaign to free them have been reported by Saudi media or pan-Arab organizations.

"These men have spent more than six months in detention pending investigations and we demand their release according to the penal code," said the statement signed by well-known writers and academics, including liberal, Islamist and Shia Muslim activists.

The detainees are mainly Islamist reformers who signed petitions to the royal family in 2003. The day before their arrest three signed a petition calling for a constitutional monarchy. Islamists earlier this year accused the interior ministry of stepping up repression. In July, police arrested Dr Abdullah al-Hamid, a leading reformist. The latest protest comes amid a crackdown on militants aligned to al-Qaida, with 135 alleged sympathizers arrested in Mecca this month.