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1st LD: Saudi diplomat freed after 3-year captivity in Yemen

Xinhua, March 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Saudi diplomat kidnapped by al-Qaida in southern Yemen three years ago has been freed, an Yemeni interior ministry official told Xinhua on Monday.

Abdullah al-Khalidi, a Saudi deputy consul in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, was handed over on Sunday to tribal leaders in Shabwa, Yemen's southeastern province where the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is active, the official said.

The diplomat was kidnapped in front of his house on his way to work in Aden on March 28, 2012.

In Riyadh, a Saudi Interior Ministry official announced that the diplomat has returned to Saudi Arabia and that he will undergo medical checkup and meet his family, according to Saudi Press Agency.

The Saudi announcement did not say where al-Khalidi had been held, nor who was behind his disappearance, but the Yemeni interior ministry source said the diplomat had been in the hands of the AQAP. Endit