Saudi Columnist Wiil Be Repatriated - M'sia Home Minister

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), Feb 12 (Bernama) -- A Saudi Arabian newspaper columnist, detained last Thursday at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at the request of his government, will be repatriated. Malaysia Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said Mohammad Najeeb A. ashgari, 23, would be repatriated under an agreement with the Saudi Arabian government. ”Malaysia has a long-standing arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other," he said in a statement here Sunday. He said the nature of the charges against Mohammad Najeeb was a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities. The columnist was said to have infuriated Saudi Arabians for posting a series of tweets on Prophet Muhammad's birthday last week. This resulted in Twitter (online social network) registering nearly 30,000 tweets on the topic in less than 24 hours. -- BERNAMA