Qassim police said security officers arrested scores of people in Buraidah on suspicion of engaging in an illegal gathering and refusal to disperse from the front side of the office of the Prosecutions and Investigations Commission early yesterday.
The arrests were made at 3 a.m. after efforts lasting 12 hours to disperse the crowd failed.
“The arrested were 161 people accompanied by 15 women and six children assembled in order to mobilize public opinion by exploiting the cases of a number of convicts and accused in criminal cases related to the activities of a deviant (militant) group,” the spokesman said in statement.
“The detained people will be handed over to the related departments for further legal steps,” the spokesman said, adding that the children among the detained will be handed over to relatives.
The spokesman asserted that authorities will not be lax in implementing the regulations that ban illegal assembling, demonstrations and picketing of any kind and will deal with any violators of the regulations with firmness.
161 arrested in Buraidah
