Saudi 'Qaida Suspect' Turns Himself in

A Saudi citizen who was "lured to restive areas" abroad, has surrendered and been repatriated, the interior ministry said on Sunday, without specifying where he had been.

The authorities in January 2011 published a list of 47 nationals accused of having links to the al-Qaida global extremist network.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, "expressed the desire to return home and hand himself over to security services," the official SPA news agency cited a ministry spokesman as saying.

Authorities have "facilitated his return to the kingdom with his wife," it said.

"His surrender will be taken into consideration" in any legal procedures taken subsequently, the spokesman said without elaborating.

The interior ministry had urged those wanted to surrender to present themselves at Saudi embassies, saying they would be repatriated and reunited with their families.

After a wave of deadly al-Qaida attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, authorities launched a crackdown on the local branch of the group founded by the late Osama bin Laden, himself Saudi-born.

Many Saudi militants fled to Yemen where regrouped jihadists formed Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, believed to be the network's deadliest and most active branch.