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Riyadh: A Saudi dissident who returned from exile last year met King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and apologised for his dissent, accusing his former associates of propagating lies about the royal family. Abdul Aziz Al Shanbari returned to the kingdom in December after abruptly quitting the Islamic Movement for Reform, a small London-based opposition group that advocates a strict Islamic government for Saudi Arabia. "I am standing here before you so that the whole world may bear witness to your wisdom," the official Saudi Press Agency quoted Al Shanbari as telling the king. Al Shanbari said he had done wrong when he joined "the liars and hypocrites" the term for Saudi dissidents in exile. The agency quoted King Abdullah as replying: "Thank God you have been able to conquer Satan and return to righteousness."
Al Shanbari was not arrested when he returned last year. He said then that he regretted his involvement with the opposition group, and his apology to the king on Tuesday was seen as sealing his rehabilitation. The leader of the Islamic Movement for Reform, Sa'ad Al Faqih, has accused Al Shanbari of becoming a puppet of the royal family. Formed in 1996, the group accuses the Saudi royal family of being "corrupt and undemocratic". It calls for peaceful change, but it has not deplored terrorist attacks in the kingdom.
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