Several Saudi-based newspapers reported on Monday that Arwa Baghdadi, a female Saudi national believed to have links with al-Qaeda militants would have fled to Yemen after a court convicted her on terror charges.
Although a Saudi court established that Arwa had indeed joined up al-Qaeda upon the death of her brother, Mohammed Baghdadi, she was subsequently released back into the family fold, under the strict authority of her father and brother, who became her legal guardians and guarantors of sort.
Arwa was arrested by the Saudi authorities in December 2010, in Wadi al-Dawasir after she opposed the security sources and appeared as a threat to public order.
On Monday, Arwa's mother, Huda al-Adhal made a distraught appeal to the press, asking for her daughter who ran away accompanied by her brother, to return home to Saudi Arabia, where she said they would be treated with clemency.
Al-Hayat newspaper quoted on Monday her mother as saying "The authorities here are tolerant and forgiving. So please come back!"
Arwa explained that her son informed her of him and Arwa's plan to join Yemen al-Qaeda over a phone call.
The Saudi authorities are now searching for Arwa and her two children, two-and-a-half-year-old son Osama and four-months old daughter Khadijah, Anas Baghdadi, his wife, Afnan, Mohammed's widow and her four-month-old daughter Huda. (Mohammed Baghdadi died right before Arwa allegedly joined al-Qaeda).
Family members have appealed to both Arwa and Anas family loyalty, asking them to surrender themselves to the authorities and ask for forgiveness. An uncle, Hesham Baghdadi told the press that the state had shown clemency to repentant terror militants in the past and had even provided them with tools to reintegrate society.
If indeed it is established that Arwa Baghdadi escaped to Yemen to join al-Qaeda, she would be the thirds female Saudi national to willingly cross the border to follow the terror group.