Khalid Alblahdi Okaz/Saudi Gazette DAMMAM — A Saudi diplomat in Jordan has revealed that 30 percent of cars stolen from Saudi visitors in Jordan this summer were returned to their owners. Hamad Al-Hajiri, the Kingdom's deputy ambassador in Amman, said the Saudi embassy assists citizens whose cars are stolen with legal aid so they may not be subject to violations or other legal penalties incurred by those who stole their vehicles. Many cases of stolen Saudi cars in Jordan are attributed to carelessness, as Saudis are continually asked to reside in apartments with garages and secure private parking and CCTV cameras. He pointed out that the embassy is working with the Jordanian authorities to eliminate such incidents, especially since the recent thefts had a direct effect on the country's reputation and on tourism in Jordan. Al-Hajiri said 700,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia arrived in Jordan last summer. As for the case of a Saudi engineer murdered in Jordan, the diplomat said two suspects in the case, of whom one is 16 years old, have confessed, and that the case was now in the court. With respect to the assault on Saudi students in Mu'ta University, he said it was not a targeted assault on the Saudi students, but some Jordanians entered campus and clashed with other Arab students, and the Saudis intervened and were attacked in the process. He pointed out that the number of Saudi students in Jordan is close to six thousand, and this number may increase following the royal decision to include students who are studying on their own account to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques scholarship program.
