Man wanted over protests surrenders, say police

Riyadh: A man wanted in connection with protests among Saudi Arabia’s Shiite community has turned himself in, police said on Thursday.

Hassan Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan, surrendered to police in the predominantly Shiite district of Qatif, in the Eastern Province, said an interior ministry statement carried by SPA state news agency.

He figured on a list of 23 Saudis wanted in connection with the protests among the province’s Shiites that broke out in March 2011.

The unrest in Eastern Province first erupted after violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the Muslim holy city of Madinah, in western Saudi Arabia, in February 2011.

The protests escalated when Riyadh led a force of Gulf troops into neighbouring Bahrain the following month to help quell Shiite-led pro-democracy demonstrations in the tiny Gulf kingdom.

Eastern Province is home to most of the kingdom’s two million Shiites, who are believed to represent 10 per cent of the Saudi population.

Human rights groups say more than 600 people have been arrested since the spring of 2011. The majority have since been released.

Of the 23 suspects on the wanted list, two have been reportedly killed in shootouts and 12 arrested.