The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is opposed to all forms of terrorism and will continue its ongoing crackdown on those who want to disrupt the country's peace and stability. This was said here on Saturday by Dr. Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Salem, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, before the closing session of the 10th Conference on Transnational Crime, organized by the Crans Montana Forum. In his speech, Al-Salem said the Kingdom has a number of measures underway to root out this problem, particularly in combating the financing of terrorist organizations and money laundering. The Saudi official said Saudi Arabia has been attacked 98 times by terrorists. Some of these attacks took place long before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Al-Salem said terrorist acts in the Kingdom have claimed the lives of 90 civilians and injured 608 people. The Kingdom has foiled 160 terrorist operations through preemptive strikes by the Saudi security agencies. Saudi security agencies have also incurred losses, with 65 deaths and 390 injured. However, he said the threat level posed by terrorist groups in the Kingdom has decreased because of the action of the security forces. He said the Kingdom was one of the first countries that warned against the danger of Osama Bin Laden and his “corrupt approach”. The country stripped him of his Saudi citizenship and froze his assets in 1994. This was well before the Sept. 11 attacks, he said. Al-Salem said the Kingdom abides by all international resolutions related to combating terrorism. The goverment has signed a number of bilateral agreements with other countries on combating terror funding and money laundering. He said the Kingdom has established a special court to prosecute those suspected of attacks. It has charged 991 people and intends to charge a further 323. The courts are also looking at a number of money laundering cases. Between 2004 and 2008, 180 were charged and 175 may still be charged. Between 2004 and 2007, 37 were charged and a further 43 people are suspected of being involved in funding terrorist organizations.
