Manama: A Saudi appeals court has upheld a lower court decision to sentence a television channel owner to 12 years behind bars for undermining the state and seeking to incite unrest.
The court also upheld a 20-year travel ban following the jail term and a decision barring the defendant from appearing in all media.
According to the charges, the defendant, who was not named by Saudi media, was found guilty of being involved in acts against the state, provoking conflicts within the Saudi society, undermining the status of the state and discrediting all its institutions.
He was also convicted of making and disseminating programmes on the internet alleging that terrorism and Al Qaida were Saudi creations and that the kingdom was in the practice of abusing foreign residents and robbing them of their rights. The programmes were deemed potential threats to public order.
The lower court and the appeals court concurred that the defendant was guilty of “communicating with a party hostile to the kingdom at the time [the regime of toppled Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi] and receiving from them a suspicious amount of $1.8 million.”
In a separate case, the Specialised Criminal Court sentenced a defendant involved in “terrorism riots” in the city of Qatif, in the Eastern Province, to seven years in prison and prevented him from travelling outside the kingdom after the end of his jail term for a similar period.
The court said that the defendant had failed to abide by the rules of being a good citizen by being involved in several demonstrations by rioters in Al Qatif.
He was also found guilty of obstructing traffic on a public road, hurling Molotov cocktails and stones at the police and hindering policemen from carrying out their duties.
