DUBAI - One of the most wanted terror suspects in Saudi Arabia has rejected an amnesty offer by Riyadh to presumed Al-Qaeda militants who turn themselves in, according to a message posted on an Islamist website Tuesday.
"I never contemplated surrendering to any tyrant," said Fares al-Zahrani in the message attributed to him on the site, http://www.hostinganime.com/sout19/index.htm.
Zahrani figures on a list of 26 top terror suspects which has been cut down to 13 since it was issued by Saudi authorities last December. Half of the militants figuring on the list have either been killed in clashes with security forces or surrendered to authorities.
In the message, whose authenticity could not be independently verified, Zahrani denied he had initiated contacts with a Saudi cleric, Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, with a view to surrendering.
"This is a lie," he said, describing the Saudi regime as "an infidel and despotic state against which jihad (holy war) should be waged".
Two militants, including one on the most-wanted list, have turned themselves in since King Fahd offered on June 23 an amnesty to suspected Islamist extremists who surrender within a month.
Hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda sympathizers have been rounded up since they launched a deadly campaign of violence in Saudi Arabia in May 2003.
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