Slain oilman’s brother accuses Saudi Arabia of Khobar attack

jang ^ | September 09, 2004 | na

[Flavius]

ONDON: The brother of a British oil executive killed in a suspected al-Qaeda attack in Saudi Arabia last May publicly accused the kingdom’s security services on Wednesday of colluding with the militants to allow some of them to escape. Michael Hamilton, a 61-year-old banker from Kilmarnock, Scotland working for the Arab Petroleum Investment Corp. (Apicorp), was shot and killed in his car by militants who then tied his body to the back of a car and drove it through the streets of Khobar city.

The militants then attacked a residential compound for foreigners working in Saudi Arabia, killing 21 other people including eight Indians, three Filipinos, three Saudis and two Sri Lankans. The dead also included an American, an Egyptian, an Italian, a South Africa and a Swede. Officials suggest that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network was involved.

Speaking on BBC radio, Hamilton’s brother Douglas Hamilton said he had strong suspicions about how some of the attackers managed to escape from a subsequent siege by Saudi security forces. "The thought that 40 of the special security people went in through various doors and in through the roof and they could not contain four men appears to be totally beyond belief," he said. Asked how he believed three of the four militants escaped, Hamilton said: "Purely because of their connections with the internal security at Saudi." "There are a lot of questions that have been asked," he said.

[OldFriend]

Much as some in security at the border near Beslan allowed the murderers to pass thru the checkpoints without documentation in exchange for bribes.