October 25, 2003	Saturday	Sha’aban 28, 1424

RIYADH, Oct 24: Saudi authorities have served notice that despite plans for reform, demonstrations remain a red line, detaining more than 70 protesters in three cities as they quelled rallies called by an exiled Islamist dissident group.

The head of Saudi Arabia’s Higher Judiciary Council, Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Luhaidan, said in remarks published here hours before Thursday’s attempted protests that demonstrations were “demagogic” and authorities were duty-bound to “stand up firmly” to such activities.

Calls for demonstrations and sit-ins “amount to calls for strife, and to an attempt to spread vice and undermine security,” he told the daily Okaz.

His remarks followed a warning by Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz that protests “violate existing (rules) and anyone who takes part in them will be subjected to deterrent punishment meted out by the court.”

On Thursday afternoon, security forces detained more than 70 demonstrators as they put on a show of force to halt protests called by the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA).—AFP