Faqih plays down Saudi pardon to imprisoned reformers
The Islamic movement for reform in Saudi Arabia played down the decision by King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz to pardon five imprisoned reform advocates, saying that 4000 prisoners of opinion are still in the jails of the kingdom.
The spokesman for the movement Saad al-Faqih said that he considers "the release of the five men as just a halt to a continuous crime, and there should be an apology for this, and a financial and morale compensation," adding that the best compensation is to implement these reformers demands to freedom of expression and assembly.
Some observers considered that the step taken by the Saudi King as not constituting a special event. It is a tradition that comes with every king who ascends to the throne, according to the Saudi liberal writer Mansour al- Nqiedan who admitted that King Abdullah "is the member in the Saudi royal family closest (in views) to the demands of the reformers."
On Tuesday the Saudi king decided to release reforms Abdullah al-Hamid, Matrouk al-Faleh and poet Ali al-Domeini who were sentenced to imprisonment for periods reaching nine years over accusations of "provoking sedition and unrest," in remarks to their calls to creating a constitutional monarchy, in addition to the pardon of their lawyer Abdul Rahman al-Lahem who criticized the Saudi judiciary during their trial.
Al-Lahem who remained jailed for ten months without accusation described the release as a positive step in the right track saying that this will enhance national unity.
