RIYADH – Jouri Al-Khaledi, the girl child kidnapped nearly two weeks ago, has been found alive and safe by Riyadh police on Tuesday. Abdul Hakeem Al-Khaledi, uncle of Jouri, said that the girl is fine and has now been rejoined with her parents. Relating this news to a local channel, he said that the police found the child following a raid on an apartment in the capital city. The culprits have been arrested. Jouri was handed to her parents after undergoing medical checkups, according to informed sources. Riyadh Emir Prince Faisal Bin Bandar lauded the security forces' efforts in saving the girl and restoring her safely to the worried parents. "Jouri is the daughter of the nation and we all are proud of her, and are happy in her safe return without being harmed," the emir said, adding," details of the operation to rescue the child will be revealed soon." Prince Faisal made these statements after being told of the child's safe return to her parents. He was speaking to reporters at a function he was attending at King Faisal Conference Hall here on Tuesday evening. An official spokesman of Riyadh police later stated that two suspects — a Saudi and a Syrian — have been arrested for kidnapping and holding Jori in an apartment in Eshbelian neighborhood in Riyadh. The suspects confessed to the police about committing the crime. Police received information about the Saudi being behind the kidnapping. They then stormed the Saudi's apartment and found an Syrian expatriate and an Ethiopian woman in her 30s. Police also found a weapon and drugs. Jouri was kidnapped from a polyclinic in Takhassusi district in Riyadh. She had gone to the clinic with her parents. Jouri was with her father when she was abducted from the reception hall of the polyclinic while her mother was receiving treatment at an outpatient clinic. The incident happened when her father went out briefly to a nearby shop to buy something after asking her to stay put at the reception area. The kidnapper took this opportunity to commit the crime. The police launched a manhunt immediately after receiving a complaint from the parents. The police had obtained the facsimile of the kidnapper's identity from the security camera at the polyclinic. The parents and other family members of Jouri had spent sleepless nights following the abduction and their anguish deepened with rumors circulating in the social media about the child's fate. This forced the child's grandparent to come out strongly against those spreading rumors and asking people to stop spreading rumors and false stories about her death.
