Otaibi, the wanted terrorist whose return to the Kingdom was announced in an Interior Ministry statement Wednesday, has told Okaz of how her son left home on Aug. 31, 2008. According to Umm Fawwaz, her son claimed he was being transferred from his post with National Guard in the south to the northern region of Tabuk, and went to bid farewell to his family before departing. “A few days later, he telephoned his brothers to tell them he was in Pakistan for jihad,” Umm Fawwaz said. “I realized he wouldn't return and lost all hope of seeing him again, because he was doing what he always dreamed of doing since he was about 16,” she continued. “When he was a teenager he used to spend a lot of time watching the war in Afghanistan and wishing he was with them carrying out jihad and achieving martyrdom.” Umm Fawwaz said she never noticed any particular moment of change in her son's demeanor, such as adopting signs of religious extremism. “He finished secondary education, got a job and married his cousin and they had two sons and a daughter. His life was normal,” she said. “He never had strangers as companions, and used to spend all his time at work and home.” Umm Fawaz said she begged her son to return on around three occasions he telephoned them, but the final answer she received was still unexpected. “He said he regretted leaving the Kingdom and had decided to return,” Umm Fawwaz said. “I was so overwhelmed with happiness that I fainted.” According to Umm Fawwaz her son did not have a passport and so contacted the authorities through his brothers and coordinated with security officials to hand himself in to the Saudi embassy in Pakistan. Since his return, 36-year-old Al-Otaibi has been held at Riyadh's Al-Haier Prison where he has been twice visited by his mother, brothers, wife and children. Interior ministry officials have said that Al-Otaibi will be treated in line with all procedures in such cases. “His initiative to return home and the role of his family in this respect will be taken into account when his case is considered,” the spokesman said Wednesday, adding that Otaibi was permitted last Tuesday to perform Umrah pilgrimage in Makkah. One of Al-Otaibi's brothers told Okaz Thursday that he returned to the Kingdom because “he didn't find the jihad he had hoped for”. No official statement has yet been made on his precise date of return to the Kingdom.
