RIYADH: Tensions between Saudi Arabia and its Shia minority could worsen if 16 detained Shias are charged with spying in a case linked to Iran, community leaders said yesterday.
The government has blamed unrest among Shias in the Qatif district of oil-producing Eastern Province on an unnamed foreign power, seen as code for Iran, something local activists have denied. Sixteen people have been killed in Qatif in clashes with police in the past two years.
Shia activists said several members of their community had been arrested in the past four days across Saudi Arabia and their families had not been able to contact them.
Late on Tuesday the Interior Ministry said the intelligence service had detained an Iranian, a Lebanese and 16 Saudis for spying. Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran are rivals for influence across the region.
Those detained included two clerics, a banker, a paediatric doctor and a university professor, Shia activists said. They were arrested in Riyadh, Makkah, Jeddah and Eastern Province.
“These people are not at all known as politically active. They are active only in normal religious practices. So these accusations are really strange. This whole story is damaging relations with the community,” said one Shia leader, Jafar Al Shayeb.
Shayeb said suspects’ houses had been raided and their computers and phones taken by security forces.
The Interior Ministry said the men “were gathering information about installations and vital areas in the country” and that they were “working for a foreign country”.
Reuters
