The Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool. AFP PHOTO / STR Source: AFP
SAUDI Arabia is hoping to wean jailed al-Qaida militants off religious extremism with counselling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation centre in Riyadh.
In between sessions with counsellors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the centre's facilities, which include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a gym and a television hall.
The new complex is the work of the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care, a body set up seven years ago to rehabilitate extremists jailed during a Saudi crackdown on the local branch of al-Qaida.
"Just under 3000 (Islamist prisoners) will have to go through one of these centres before they can be released," interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki said during a tour of the new centre.
Recreation facilities include pool tables. AFP PHOTO / STR
The new facility in Riyadh, however, is the first to offer inmates a taste of luxury as an incentive to moderate their beliefs.
The centres bear the name of the current interior minister, who spearheaded the government's crackdown on al-Qaida following deadly attacks by the group between 2003 and 2006 in which more than 150 Saudis and foreigners were killed.
Inmates are encouraged to express themselves in art. AFP PHOTO / STR
Al-Qaida jihadists, many of them trained in Afghanistan, had targeted Saudi Arabia for allowing US troops to set up bases in the kingdom during the Gulf War and to stay on afterwards, until they eventually withdrew in 2003.
The Riyadh centre spreads over an area equivalent to around 10 football pitches and is designed to accommodate 228 prisoners from the "deviant group," the term used by Saudi authorities to refer to al-Qaida.
Each of the 12 buildings at the flagship facility will host 19 prisoners, who will have access to special suites where they can spend time with visiting family members.
Healthy body, healthy mind? AFP PHOTO / STR
Good behaviour could earn them a two-day break with their wives.
During the day, the prisoners will attend seminars on religious affairs, aimed at steering them away from thoughts of jihad.
"In order to fight terrorism, we must give them an intellectual and psychological balance... through dialogue and persuasion," said the director of the rehabilitation centres, Said al-Bishi.
He said a total of 2,36 Al-Qaida prisoners have now been through Saudi rehabilitation schemes.
There have been some high-profile returns to the ranks of the jihad, such as Saeed al-Shehri, who became deputy leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula after supposedly being rehabilitated.
Liberals are particularly critical of the religious content of the program which they say draws on an ultra-conservative version of Islam not so different from al-Qaida's own.
"We cannot know if the program will succeed in eradicating terrorism and extremism," said social scientist Khaled al-Dakheel.
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