Saudi Arabia frees thousands of ex-terror suspects: minister

DUBAI (AFP) - Saudi Arabia has freed thousands of former terror suspects whose responsibility was deemed to be low or who recanted their previous beliefs, the kingdom's interior minister said.

"We have freed thousands," Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz told the Al-Arabiya satellite channel, without giving a specific number or a time for the release.

"We are holding on to those who we have to keep or those who have been found guilty," he added.

"The releases are continuing ... but those who were found guilty, sent to court and subject to investigations" are being kept in detention.

"As for those whose responsibility is limited, they have been freed with a caution and have gone back on their previous links and vowed to distance themselves from these. Thus they have been freed."

The oil-rich kingdom has been locked in a battle to thwart extremists, that it says are bent on overthrowing the royal family, since the start of a wave of violent clashes and attacks against Westerners in May 2003.

It has been under pressure to crack down on militancy since the September 11 attacks on the United States, a strike masterminded by Saudi-born
Osama bin Laden, in which 15 out of the 19 suicide hijackers were Saudi.