1,500 Saudi militants freed after counselling

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has announced that it has released 1,500 militants after intensive counselling sessions.

"The freed persons were convinced of their wrong ideologies and they have backtracked from their previous slogan of driving "infidels" outside the Arabian Peninsula," Al Watan Arabic newspaper reported on Sunday.

In 2004, Saudi Arabia established counselling committees whose tasks were to encourage prisoners to renounce their extremist beliefs. The committees comprised more than 100 ulema (Muslim scholars) and Islamic faith specialists as well as 30 psychiatrists, sociologists and psychologists.

Dr Mohammad Al Nujaimi, member of one of the counselling committees and professor of comparative fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) at King Fahd Security College in Riyadh, said in press statements that since they started their works, the counselling committees have convened more than 5,000 sessions for some 3,200 prisoners suspected of embracing militant ideologies.

"As many as 1,500 persons who have been advised by the committee and who backtracked from their ideologies were set free," he added. However, he did not disclose when the prisoners were set free and whether others will be freed soon.

He said the counselling session focused on explaining the ideologies adopted by the militants like jihad, which labels Muslim rulers and scholars as well as other people as infidels and calls for establishing an Islamic state.