RIYADH: Saudi authorities have freed 13 Shiite activists detained for taking part in demonstrations calling for the release of jailed relatives in the oil-producing east, activists said Wednesday.
Minority Shiites have staged protests in the Eastern Province to demand the release of prisoners and also to call on political reforms in the strict monarchy system.

Police dispersed several marches and made arrests for defying a ban on demonstrations. “They released 13 people. They have been releasing people every week since the protests,” said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, head of the independent Human Rights First Society.

A Shiite activist said 12 people were still being held in jail.
“They might be released next week. The government keeps them to ensure that there will be no more demonstrations,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry declined to comment.

Hundreds of Saudi Shiites Friday demanded that Saudi troops return from Bahrain, and called for political rights and freedoms at home, demonstrators said. The protests were held in the main Shiite center of Qatif.
Saudi Arabia sent 1,000 troops last month to Bahrain, a Sunni monarchy, to help contain protests led by that Gulf Arab country’s Shiite majority.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that has no elected parliament and does not tolerate any form of dissent.
The world’s top oil producer has escaped the kind of mass uprisings that have rocked the Arab world this year. Eastern Province, where the small Shiite protests have been, is where most of the kingdom’s oil fields are.
Saudi Shiites complain of discrimination, saying they often struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits available to other citizens. The government denies such charges.

Almost no Saudis in major cities answered a Facebook call for protest on March 11, in the face of a massive security presence around the country.
King Abdullah last month offered $93 billion in handouts and boosted his security and religious police forces but did not make concessions on political rights.