MAKKAH — As many as 16 Saudi scholarship students abroad have been killed or have gone missing in five countries since 2001, according to a report published on Sunday by Makkah daily. According to the report, 13 Saudi students were killed and three others have disappeared without a trace so far. The report said seven murders and three disappearance cases of Saudi scholarship students took place in the US in the past 15 years. The US has the largest number of male and female Saudi scholarship students. According to the report, in addition to the murder and disappearance cases, there were physical attacks and discrimination incidents against Saudi scholarship students in the US since 2001. The report said that out of 16 murder and disappearance cases in five countries, the murders of four Saudi students still remain unsolved. The case of the Saudi student Hamza Al-Sharif, who disappeared in Canada in 2001 was registered against an unidentified criminal. Though 15 years have passed since Sharif disappeared, the Canadian authorities still have no clue about what has exactly happened to him. According to the report, seven of those murdered in the US included Abdulaziz Al-Kohaji who was killed in 2001. One of the murder suspects was handed life imprisonment. The second was the female student Rukayya Muneer Al-Awami who was killed in 2008 in a traffic accident by a drunk driver. The third was Abdullah Al-Qadi who was stabbed to death in 2014 and the fourth was Mohammed Al-Badi who was killed in the same year by his compatriot Marwan Hinnawi who ran over him by his car. Hinnawi is now locked up in prison. Three other Saudi students — Talal Al-Johani, Rayan Ibrahim and Mansour Al-Yami — were all killed in the US in 2015. In Britain two Saudi students lost their lives while on scholarship. One of them was Nahid Al-Manie who was stabbed to death in 2014 by a 15-year old Briton. The second was Hamad Saleh Al-Yami who was also stabbed to death in the same year by unknown assailants. In New Zealand two Saudi scholarship students were shot dead, and the killers are still at large. They were Fahd Al-Salamah who was killed by a gunshot in 2008 and Hassan Al-Omairi who had the same fate in 2010. In Australia, Sultan Al-Amri was found burnt to death in his room in 2012 and in Malaysia Naif Al-Khaneeni was stabbed to death but the culprits were caught.
