DAMMAM: Two Saudi women activists were released from custody late Monday night after being arrested earlier in the day on charges of attempting to help the Canadian wife of a Saudi man flee her husband with their three children. On being released, however, Fouzia Al-Uyouni denied the charges made against her and Wajeeha Al-Huwaidir by the woman's husband. “The problem is the Human Rights Commission has not dealt with the case seriously and it has gone on longer than a year,” Al-Uyouni said. “We only went to the woman's house to help her get some food from the supermarket and then take her home again, as she said her children were not being properly fed, but her husband appeared and took us to the police. The incident will at least serve to highlight this woman's case.” Police arrested the two women after they were observed outside the house of Saudi man Saeed Al-Shahrani putting his wife and their two daughters and son, aged between three and nine, into a car driven by a man under the sponsorship of Al-Uyouni's husband. Al-Shahrani told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the two Saudi women were detained in front of his house while intending to take his wife and children to the Canadian Embassy in Riyadh and then depart the country for Canada. Al-Uyouni denied the claim they were helping the woman and children flee the country. Al-Shahrani said he would not waive his rights in the case, however. He said he was reiterating his appeals for “protection” from the two women. “My wife and I came to an agreement after our problems, but Wajeeha and Fouzia are trying to stoke things and that was discovered during the probe,” he said. The marital disputes between Al-Shahrani and his Canadian wife have been brought to the attention of the public sporadically over the last five years. In 2009 it was reported that Al-Shahrani was willing to let his wife leave with his three children in return for $300,000, a sum his wife said at the time that she did not have and that her husband “knows I don't have it”. The family of Al-Shahrani's wife appealed to the Saudi authorities to pay the money after Canadian authorities refused to involve themselves in the issue beyond discussions between the respective foreign ministries.
