9/11 Suspect Surrenders, Father Says

25/08/2002| IslamWeb

A 21-year-old Saudi man sought by the FBI on suspicion of associating with the Sept. 11 hijackers has surrendered to Saudi authorities, his father said Saturday. Saud Abdulaziz Saud al-Rasheed turned himself in to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry on Thursday to prove his innocence after learning of the FBI's worldwide alert for his arrest, his father told The Associated Press from Riyadh.

The Saudi Interior Ministry on Saturday would not confirm or deny it was holding the younger al-Rasheed. The FBI did not respond Saturday to requests for comment.

The FBI issued a bulletin Tuesday night seeking the younger al-Rasheed's immediate arrest, saying he was suspected of being associated with the hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and who seized a third plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

The bulletin said a picture from al-Rasheed's Saudi passport, issued in May 2000, was found among material "previously recovered during the war on terrorism" and found to be related to the Sept. 11 hijackers.

The father, Abdulaziz Saud al-Rasheed, said he urged his son to surrender because he was sure of the young man's innocence and feared for his safety after the FBI alert.

The elder al-Rasheed, who works for the Saudi Red Crescent in the capital Riyadh, denied FBI accusations against his son, calling him a peaceful person who "has nothing to do with terror networks."

"He has never held a gun in his life," the father said.

He said his son was in Egypt when the alert was issued, returned to Saudi Arabia Wednesday and surrendered to authorities the next day in his hometown, Riyadh.

The FBI bulletin said the suspect's whereabouts were unknown and warned he should be considered armed and dangerous. At least two Arab newspapers reported in recent days that the suspect was in Saudi Arabia.

Senior U.S. law enforcement officials said the younger al-Rasheed's picture was found among pictures of several hijackers in materials obtained overseas some time ago and recently reviewed at the FBI.

The elder al-Rasheed said the FBI obtained his son's photo from Pakistan.

"Saud told me that he entered Afghanistan through Pakistan and that he gave that particular photo to the Pakistani authorities in his visa application," he said.

The younger al-Rasheed, who runs a small sweet shop in Riyadh, was in Afghanistan last year to participate in humanitarian efforts and returned to Saudi Arabia several months before Sept. 11, his father said.

"He confirmed to me he had no relations with any terror group there, specifically al-Qaida or the Taliban regime," he said, adding that he supported his son's Afghanistan trip because he believed it would make him "an independent man."

PHOTO CAPTION

Saud Abdulaziz Saud al-Rasheed of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is seen in this undated handout image form the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Al-Rasheed, who is wanted by FBI for alleged links to the Sept. 11 hijackers, has been detained by the Saudi authorities, his father said Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002. The Saudi Interior Ministry on Saturday would not confirm or deny it was holding al-Rasheed.(AP Photo/FBI)