The defendants have been given 30 days to appeal against the verdict. The court looked into the 30-month-old case on Sunday — which drew a lot of public attention.

The suspects are the killer, his father, his four brothers and two uncles.

The massacre took place in a rest house along Sail Al-Saghir about two and a half years ago.

It started with a conflict between relatives on the ownership of a piece of land in Wadi Qaran, along Al-Sail Road. Leaders of the tribe then decided to reconcile the quarreling relatives.

They selected the rest house, located 30 km from Taif to hold reconciliation talks. The leaders were successful in reconciling the two sides before they went for Isha prayer.

In the meantime, the quarrel erupted again with a fist fight inside the rest house. They also used light weapons during which the son of the killer was stabbed. The killer and his brothers had thought that their son would die as a result of stab wounds.

The man then fired 26 shots from his machine gun against the other party and ran away from the site. Security forces cordoned off the area to track down the culprits while Red Crescent officials transported the injured to hospital for treatment.

The incident caused the death of six people including five brothers with the eldest of them being 63. His 18-year-old son died on the spot. The incident orphaned 96 children and widowed 11 women who are now paying the price for a bitter rivalry their relatives had over a piece of land.