JEDDAH, 16 December 2004 — Seven jailed terror suspects have made a televised appeal to extremists in the Kingdom to surrender, denying reports of torture in Al-Hair prison, with one — on the list of 26 most wanted terrorists — saying his jailers were nicer than his parents.

The late Tuesday documentary from Al-Hair reform penitentiary, outside Riyadh, was another attempt by authorities to encourage wanted terrorists to surrender and to counter propaganda that those who give themselves up are mistreated in jail.

“I swear to God, they (jailers) are nicer than our parents,” said Othman Hadi Al-Maqboul Al-Amri, who surrendered on June 28 under a one-month amnesty offer in the summer.

“We heard things about abuse and persecution that could or could not be believed,” another prisoner, Abdul-Rahman Al-Ahmari, said. “But I found Al-Hair totally different.”

Saudi Television’s Channel 1 has aired militant confessions and interviews with fathers of wanted men as part of a campaign to rally the public against extremists who have carried out terror attacks inside the Kingdom.

Cameras were allowed into the Al-Hair prison for the television program to show gleaming corridors, rows of colorful beds and books piled on bedside tables.

“Anyone who has experienced the reality finds a big difference between the many cases of torture we heard about and what we found,” prisoner Al-Ahmari said.

“The dealings with the prison administration, the sympathy for the prisoners’ wishes ... I can call it a family connection,” Al-Ahmari told the program.

Abdullah Al-Silmi, sitting in a deep yellow armchair, said he surrendered after hearing about the amnesty and watching the televised confession of Sheikh Ali Al-Khodair.

“I was awe-struck,” said Al-Silmi. “I knew then that I had made a mistake.”

Fowzan Al-Fowzan spoke about the constant fear he lived in as a man on the run, especially when he heard police sirens.

“You’re so afraid that you jail yourself for fear of being arrested,” he said.

Obaid Al-Qahtani said he unwittingly became a member of a militant group when he gave his car to a cousin, suspected militant Fares Al-Zahrani, to sell. Obaid said he was badly in need of money to pay his bills and Al-Zahrani, a fellow villager, had persuaded him he could sell it.

“He kept stalling so he could keep the car with him ... and use it for illegal acts without my knowledge,” Obaid said. The car was later found with a wanted man.

Al-Silmi said he surrendered after hearing Interior Minister Prince Naif say that militants who gave themselves up would be treated more leniently and those who were just sympathizers had nothing to fear.

“If I had known I would have had this reception, by God I would have surrendered a long time ago,” he said. “I advise the wanted brothers who harbor these thoughts to give themselves up.”

Khaled Al-Harbi, who appeared in a videotape with Osama Bin Laden praising the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, told the television program he surrendered after hearing about the June amnesty on the radio.

The wheelchair-bound Al-Harbi returned to Riyadh in July after giving himself up on the Iranian-Afghan border.

According to Al-Madinah daily, the detained extremists declared their repentance and described as to how the royal pardon transformed them from terrorists to terror fighters. They said they committed mistakes against themselves and their country when they did not hand themselves in earlier on. They said they wanted to erase the bad image of the past from the minds of people.

The TV program also talked about the deceptive ways of people who used to recruit youth. It also highlighted the trauma these people had to live with when they were hunted by the authorities.