Huwaidar who was detained briefly on Monday charged with attempting to help the Canadian wife of a Saudi man flee her husband with their three children has denied the accusations. Al-Huwaidar told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that she had gone to the woman's house in response to a “request for food”, an account which corresponds to that given earlier by Fouzia Al-Uyouni, the other woman arrested in the incident. “I received a message from the wife asking for help in getting some food for her and her children as her husband was away,” Al-Huwaidar said. “When I went to help her I was met by the police who arrested me in the presence of the woman's husband.” She said that one year ago she received a call from the woman's mother abroad asking her to help her daughter, but said she was unable to “because the Human Rights Commission did not respond”. “I had also previously had a call from the mother asking me to help her daughter get out of the country, even if it were by illegal means, but I refused because I don't want to break the law or put myself in such a legal position,” she said. Al-Huwaidar added that she was treated with “every respect” by police and extended her gratitude to Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of the Eastern province, who ordered her release. “He is following up with the Canadian woman's case and her securing of her rights,” she said. On Wednesday, Saudi Gazette reported Fouzia Al-Uyouni as giving a similar account. “We only went to the woman's house to help her get some food from the supermarket and then take her home again, as she said her children were not being properly fed,” Al-Uyouni said. “But her husband appeared and took us to the police. The incident will at least serve to highlight this woman's case.” Police arrested Al-Huwaidar and Al-Uyouni on Monday after they were observed outside the house of Saeed Al-Shahrani putting his Canadian wife and their two daughters and son, aged between three and nine, into a car driven by a man under the sponsorship of Al-Uyouni's husband. Al-Shahrani, whose differences with his wife have been reported several times in the local press over the last few years, claimed that the two Saudi women sought to take his wife and children to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh with the intention of them then departing the country for Canada.
