Manama: A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced two Saudi nationals to four and three years in jail for their role in a public rally in 2011.
A third suspect was acquitted for lack of evidence.
The three were arrested after allegedly responding to online calls to hold a rally at a mosque in the capital Riyadh during the Friday prayers on March 11, 2011.
The calls, issued amidst the so-called Arab Spring movement that swept across several Arab countries, asked the participants to disrupt the Friday prayers and to interrupt the preacher during his sermon with slogans.
The court said that the first and second defendants were guilty of responding to the calls and of playing a role in attempting to create a chaotic situation.
The first defendant was sentenced to three years in prison and banned from leaving the kingdom for four years after serving his sentence.
The second defendant who was also found guilty of carrying a loudspeaker for use during the rally and of storing on his mobile phone material likely to undermine public order was handed a four-year prison term to be followed by a ban on travel abroad for four years, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Thursday.
The court decided not to accept the case by the public prosecutor against the third suspect, citing the lack of evidence against him.
