Riyadh jails protesters, militants for up to 10 years

Riyadh: A Riyadh court sentenced five Saudis to jail for five to ten years on Monday for anti-regime activities in its restive Eastern Province and supporting militants in Iraq and Syria.

The court gave one Saudi ten years in jail and another seven for giving a television network “hostile to the kingdom” protest footage captured on a phone in Qatif, the epicentre of Shiite-led anti-regime protests.

The same court, which specialises in trying terrorism cases, sentenced a third individual to ten years for taking part in demonstrations in Awamiyeh, an eastern town near Qatif, that called for the “fall of the regime”.

It gave another defendant an eight-year prison term for having travelled to war-torn Syria and pledging allegiance to the head of the militant Daesh group.

Another was sentenced to seven years in jail for going to Iraq to fight alongside militants after receiving combat training at a camp in Yemen, where Al Qaida is highly active.

Scores of Saudis are believed to be in the ranks of radical Islamist groups in areas of unrest across the Middle East, including Iraq and Syria.

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz in February decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for citizens who travel abroad to fight, after the conflict in Syria attracted hundreds of Saudis.