Riyadh: A Saudi Arabian diplomat returned to Riyadh on Monday after he was released by kidnappers in Yemen where he spent three years as a hostage, the kingdom`s Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by state media. 

Abdullah al-Khalidi, Saudi Arabia`s consul in Aden, was seized in March 2012 and later appeared as a hostage in videos released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) calling on the Saudi authorities to do more to free him.