Saudi Arabian official cancels visit to Canada

The Saudi Arabian news agency said that the chairman of the Shoura council Sheikh Saleh Bin Abdullah Bin Hameed has abrogated a visit which was due to Canada in protest of "negative media reports" in Canada regarding Saudi Arabia.

The agency said that as scheduled, Saleh will head next Sunday for Hungary and Poland leading a delegation from the council in a visit which lasts for one week at the invitation of the two speakers of parliaments in the two countries.

The agency explained that the council "abrogated a visit which was due to Canada within the context of this tour in protest of the media campaign led by the Canadian media against the Kingdom over the allegations made by former Canadian detained in Saudi Arabia Sampson who was convicted in the explosions took place in Riyadh."

William Sampson spent two and a half years in the Saudi jails and he was sentenced to death over being involved in attacks by explosives between October 2000 and March 2001 that resulted in killing one British citizen.