Saudi receives Qaeda figure held in Afghanistan

RIYADH, May 7 (Reuters) US authorities have handed over to Saudi Arabia an al Qaeda figure who escaped from prison in Afghanistan and was then recaptured, the interior ministry said today.

''We received him last Sunday and we are investigating him.

He will be subject to Saudi law,'' said a spokesman, referring to the man identified in Arabic as Mohammad Jaafar al-Qahtani.

''He was in Bagram prison, escaped and then was captured again,'' he said, declining to give more details.

Qahtani, a Saudi, was one of four al Qaeda figures who escaped in 2005 from a US prison at Bagram in Afghanistan, where US forces have been hunting al Qaeda since 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks on US cities.

Saudi media said tonday the authorities spent four months negotiating with the United States to secure the return of Qahtani, assuring them he would face legal measures.

Several commentators have complained in recent weeks that a government programme to rehabilitate ''repentant'' Islamist militants with financial enticements in housing, marriage and education has encouraged Islamist violence.

Some of dozens of Saudis repatriated from the US jail at Guantanamo Bay have received similar treatment.

Last month the interior ministry said it had foiled plans by militant cells to attack oil installations, government facilities and officials, arresting 172 people.

Militants allied to al Qaeda launched a campaign to bring down the US-allied monarchy in 2003.

REUTERS RS RK2258