Badr Al-Mutawaa • Asharq Al-Awsat

JEDDAH, 4 August 2003 — Ayida Al-Sayyad, 30, the Moroccan wife of Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Faqaasi Al-Ghamdi, said to be the mastermind of the May 12 terrorist attacks, has denied her husband was handed over to American authorities.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, after her arrest and release from jail in June, she said she received a phone call from her husband last Thursday from the Riyadh prison where he is being held.

Ayida swore her husband was innocent, saying he denounced bombings and killings. “He does not support the killings or terrorizing of Americans,” she said.

She said her husband boasted about jihad in Afghanistan. “It is true that he traveled to Afghanistan and talked to me about his battles there, but Ali did not like to talk about attacking Americans or killing them. He rejected the killing of innocent people,” she said.

“After the bombings in Riyadh I confronted him and asked him to tell me the truth. He swore to Allah that he had nothing to do with the attacks in Riyadh or anywhere else,” she added.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat from her in-laws’ house in Raghdan, a province of Baha in the south, she said both the press and the public were the reasons behind Ali’s surrender to authorities.

She said there was no truth in rumors that Al-Faqaasi had been deported to Guantanamo Bay. “I am shocked to hear such news being spread. I saw my husband with my own two eyes after our arrest, and I spoke to him last Thursday on the phone. He is in good health and is in his prison cell here in the Kingdom,” she said, adding that she would stand by her man at all cost.

Several wire agencies reported that an American official said Ali Al-Faqaasi confessed in his prison cell in Guantanamo Bay that Al-Qaeda was planning new terrorist attacks by kamikaze planes.

Ayida Al-Sayyad was arrested along with Abdul Muniem Al-Ghamdi, his Syrian wife Gheida Ahmed, and Moroccan Hanna Abdullah, wife of the fugitive suspect Sultan Al-Qahtani, while they were trying to flee Madinah when Saudi authorities cracked down on terrorist cells there.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Al-Faqaasi’s wife met him in jail and they spent four hours together. The authorities “allowed me to visit my husband in jail. We sat by ourselves from 8 p.m. to 12 midnight. This happened on the last night of my stay in jail,” she said.

She said her husband had been in good spirits. “He was happy and content that he gave himself up to Prince Mohammed (ibn Naif). He told me of the humane treatment he had found from authorities.”

“After I saw how relaxed he was talking to me in prison, I was even more convinced that he was innocent of the accusations against him,” she added. She said she knew nothing of the fate of the two other women who were arrested with her, Ghieda and Hanan. “I have not seen them since that night. I was in a separate prison cell. I have not contacted them since I was released,” she said.

“I wish I could go back to Madinah and get my things because on the night we left we were in such a rush that we only carried our gold and money,” she added.

Ayida married Al-Faqaasi last year when she was in her last year of college in Damascus. Since their marriage, she lived in Madinah close to Abdul Muniem Al-Ghamdi and his wife Gheida, and Sultan Al-Qahtani and his wife Hanan. “We were staying in separate apartments in the same building,” she said.

Ayida denied she was trying to please Saudi officials to protect her husband’s future. “No. I swear they treated me very well, when I was arrested and during the interrogation process.

“If I wanted to say something bad about them I would have said so before they captured us. But I spent a month with them and did not feel threatened during the interrogation at any point,” she said.

“On the contrary, every day they brought a doctor and a psychiatrist too check my health,” she added.

Ayida said that she was grateful to Saudi authorities for their good treatment.

“I hope I am able to express my thanks and appreciation to Prince Mohammed, and before that to his father Prince Naif. My entire family in Casablanca have been praying for him with all their hearts after I told them of how he dealt with my situation. May God protect him,” she added.