Palestinian movement Hamas demands release of senior official detained in Saudi Arabia

A senior Hamas member and his son have been detained in Saudi Arabia for more than five months, the Palestinian movement said on Monday, in what it described as a “strange and reprehensible move".

Mohammed Saleh al-Khodari, who has resided in Jeddah for some three decades, was arrested by the Saudi State Security Intelligence Service on April 4 along with this son, a statement published by Hamas said.

The 81-year-old was “in charge of managing the relationship with Saudi Arabia for two decades and has held senior leadership positions in the movement,” Hamas said.

“Saudi Arabia arrested Al-Khodari, although he is 81-years-old, and suffers from an incurable disease,” it added, noting the arrest was yet to be justified.

The arrest of Al-Khodari and his son "comes as part of a campaign against many Palestinian people living in Saudi Arabia,” the group said, without providing further information.

Hamas "remained silent for five months” however no results have so far come to fruition, prompting the release of the statement.

”The movement finds itself obliged to announce this, calling on the Saudi authorities, to release the Al-Khodari and his son, as well as all Palestinian detainees.”

A Hamas source told The New Arab that more than sixty members of the movement and its supporters were detained in Saudi prisons, stressing that they were arrested in relation with the Qatar blockade.

On Friday, the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights, called on Saudi authorities to immediately disclose the fate of dozens of Palestinians who have been subjected to forced disappearance.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said in a statement that it could not give an exact figure for the number of Palestinian detainees, but had obtained the names of about 60 people.

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