So farewell then Simon Veness

The first in the gang to die.  

On 20 June 2002, Simon Veness, a 35 year old financial risk manager for the Saudi French Bank, was killed by an Al al-Qaeda car bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was survived by a (then-pregnant) wife and one year old son.  

Simon was my best friend throughout most of my childhood. We were in the same class at primary school aged five, through to leaving school aged sixteen. Simon lived two minutes walk away from me, in Devonshire Gardens.  We would play marbles, cricket or football in the park, entire summers passed in each other’s company.  

Our friend-groups diverged in the latter years of secondary school, to the extent that by the time Simon left for university we barely remained in touch.  By this time Simon had moved to the other side of town and we no longer hung out in the same place. He would move further, to university, to Kent, then to Saudi Arabia.   

The bombing that killed Simon was just one in a series of attacks against westerners by al-Qaeda in the country, with no less than eight other attacks since November 2000.  American intelligence sources found evidence that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the elite National Guard responsible for security in compounds where westerners like Simon lived. 

However, Saudi officials refused to admit the existence of an anti-western Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group and blamed the killing on what they called the “Liquor Mafia”, a supposed network of British expatriates trading in illegal smuggled alcohol. Saudi officials had tried to pin the blame for earlier bombing on five Britons, based purely on confessions which were found to have been extracted through torture.  All five were eventually released. 

Simon’s killers were never identified.  By the time of his death, I had lost all touch with Simon, his new life and his new family.  There were just about enough of us left in town to raise a pint to him the next time we met.  

This piece is my final farewell.