Bahraini Royal Is in U.S. Custody as an Al Qaeda Suspect

The United States is holding a member of Bahrain’s royal family as an Al Qaeda suspect at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a London-based Arabic newspaper reported Thursday.

There were six Bahrainis among the hundreds of suspects captured during last year’s U.S.-led military offensive in Afghanistan to flush out members of the Al Qaeda network, which Washington blames for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Asharq al Awsat daily quoted Sheik Ibrahim ibn Mohammed al Khalifa as saying his son, Sheik Salman, was arrested in Pakistan and handed over to U.S. authorities.

Sheik Ibrahim, a distant relative of King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa, did not say when the arrest took place, but told the newspaper that an unspecified party had received $20,000 for handing over his son. He said Sheik Salman, 23, traveled in 2000 to Saudi Arabia for Islamic studies.

“He contacted us three months later to inform us that he had traveled to Pakistan to do relief work, but we have lost contact with him for more than a year,” the newspaper quoted Sheik Ibrahim as saying.