Saudi demonstrators gathered outside the Interior Ministry in the morning demanding the release of political prisoners held without trial, Mohammed Al Qahtani, a Riyadh-based activist, said by phone.
Al Qahtani, who is the head of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, said he saw police detain about half of the estimated 100 protesters and place them on buses. A similar rally was held on March 13.
“The police ordered them to leave or risk arrest,” said Al Qahtani. Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Al Turki couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
Saudi Arabia has witnessed small rallies mainly by the country’s minority Shiites in eastern Saudi Arabia, urging the government to release detainees and in support of Shiite demonstrators in nearby Bahrain.
Protesters in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, largely stayed away on March 11 from a so-called Day of Rage after police were deployed to deter them. Protests are outlawed in the kingdom.
Regional unrest has so far toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, and has reached Saudi Arabia’s neighbors Yemen, Oman and Bahrain.
Libya, whose leader Muammar Qaddafi is fighting rebels who seek to end his four-decade rule, was pummeled by more than 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Sunday.
It was the first phase of an assault by international forces intent on protecting civilians from attack by Qaddafi and his loyalists.
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