RIYADH — The number of Westerners being held in Saudi Arabia on terror charges has risen to 10 with the arrest last Thursday of a Canadian expatriate. Security sources said the Canadian, who is legally staying in the Kingdom, was apprehended in Riyadh without any resistance. The suspect, referred to by his initials S.M.H, is the first Canadian to be involved in terrorist activities in the Kingdom. The other nine Westerners are eight Americans who were arrested during the past two years and a Briton who was arrested about four years ago and is still in jail. He was accused of supporting Al-Qaeda and was apprehended inside the Kingdom. The official list includes 5,158 detainees who are mostly Saudi nationals. The list of detainees is posted on the Interior Ministry's Nafethah website, which helps relatives communicate with detainees. The Interior Ministry announced in April 2015 that it had arrested 93 suspects, including a woman, belonging to Daesh (so-called IS). The ministry said 15 of them had established a terror cell under the name Jund Al-Haramain Al-Sharifain (soldiers of the land of the Two Holy Mosques). They had reached an advanced level of planning before being arrested. It was announced in February this year that security authorities were on the lookout for 154 wanted terror suspects named in nine lists published by the Ministry of Interior earlier. Anyone providing information on any of these wanted men will receive a reward of SR1m. The reward will be increased to SR5 million in the event of providing information about more than one wanted suspect. If the information helps in foiling a terrorist attack, the reward amount will be increased to SR7 million. The security agencies also updated the list of suspects arrested during the past eight days from various regions of the Kingdom, according to sources.
