Manama: Police in Kuwait are questioning a young man for helping a Saudi teenager elope from home, cross the Saudi-Kuwaiti border illegally and move into an apartment in Kuwait City he rented for her.

The Saudi girl, 19, reportedly ran away from home in the Saudi capital Riyadh on July 8 at around midnight, one week after she was engaged, reportedly against her will.

Her family, concerned about her disappearance, reported her missing to the police and an investigation was launched, Kuwaiti daily Al Rai said on Tuesday.

The police told her family that according to a scrutiny of the border records, the teenager did not leave the kingdom.

Attempts to reach her on her mobile failed as it was powered off, the police said.

The investigation focused on the last calls she made or received and the police discovered that the last number she called belonged to a Kuwaiti citizen who entered Saudi Arabia on July 7 and left on July 9, the same day the girl reportedly disappeared.

The girl’s father took the information about the Kuwaiti man and went to Kuwait where he met the public prosecutor.

The Kuwaiti police summoned the man and quizzed him over the teenager. However, he denied any role in her disappearance from her home and he was allowed to go home.

However, he was kept under surveillance and the police noticed that he frequently visited an apartment in the city.

A raid enabled the police to discover the Saudi girl living in the apartment that her Kuwaiti lover had rented after he helped her escape from Saudi Arabia.

When quizzed by the police, the Kuwaiti man admitted that he had a relationship with the Saudi girl when her family lived in Kuwait before moving back to the Saudi kingdom.

He said that they agreed on a plan for her escape from Saudi Arabia after her family reportedly forced her into an engagement with a man she did not love.

He added that she gave him her home address and that he picked her up at around midnight.

When they neared the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, he hid her behind the back seat of his sports car. He then pretended his car had broken down and called in a trailer to help him transport it into Kuwait.

Unsuspecting customs officers did not bother to inspect the “damaged” car and allowed it through the borders, the daily said.

Once the car was in Kuwait, the man recovered it and drove with his teenage friend to the rented apartment.

Both the girl and the man are in police custody pending the investigation, the daily said.