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28 March 2024

Cut your foreign trips: Saudi King tells ministers

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By Staff

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has told the Gulf country’s ministers to cut their foreign trips, saying their frequent visits abroad are affecting performance at their departments, the official news agency (SPA) reported on Saturday. 

In a circular on foreign visits by cabinet members and other senior officials, the 90-year-old Monarch said trips to attend unnecessary meetings or other events abroad could be made by aides to the ministers. 

The King said he had noticed cabinet ministers in the world’s top oil exporter and largest Arab economy are frequently going abroad to participate in events which are not important or do not entail ministerial participation.

“This is hampering work at ministries…visits by the Ministers abroad must be restricted to important events otherwise they can deputize one of their aides or a competent official to attend such events,” he said, according to SPA.

Saudi King saves Kuwaiti killer from gallows

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia intervened personally to save a Kuwaiti man sentenced to death after he was convicted of murdering a Saudi man during a fight in the Gulf Kingdom, local newspapers reported on Sunday.

Fatih Al Dhafiri was on pilgrimage in Makkah two years ago when he had a scuffle with a Saudi man following an argument at a local shop.

He then pulled a knife and stabbed the Saudi, causing him serious injuries. Dhafiri and other men rushed the Saudi to hospital but he died later.

“The victim’s father decided to pardon Dhafiri in response to mediation by the Monarch after rejecting mediations by many other people,” Alsaudeh daily said, adding that the father refused to take diya (blood money).

Under Islamic law, which is strictly enforced in conservative Saudi Arabia, a killer can walk free if pardoned by the victim’s family in return for diya.