The Specialized Criminal Court in Jeddah convicted 13 Saudi citizens and one wanted Bahraini, whose name was included on a list of 32 wanted persons announced by the Interior Ministry in 2004, for various counts of terrorism.
One defendant was charged with plotting a terror attack on the foreign affairs secretary of a Western country during her visit to the Kingdom.
The court also heard evidence suggesting that several of the defendants had lured Qur’an students into joining their group by providing millions of riyals in financial support and training them on how to use weapons and explosives.
The first defendant was sentenced to 30 years in prison and a SR35,000 fine after being found guilty of joining Al-Qaeda and raising tens of millions of riyals for the group under the pretext of charity work.
Charitable organizations confirmed that they had only received 20 percent of the money raised.
The second defendant was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sending SR470,000 to Al-Qaeda by liaising with the first defendant and being trained on how to use weapons.
The third defendant was imprisoned for 13 years for joining Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, being trained in weaponry use and electronic detonation, driving tanks and armored vehicles and being in possession of weapons, machine guns and explosives.
The tenth defendant was sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of propagating “takfiri” ideology (branding others infidels) and establishing a website to support terrorist groups and spread his ideas.
The court sentenced the eleventh defendant to 11 years in prison after finding him guilty of meeting with suspects who were wanted by security authorities.
The twelfth defendant was also sentenced to 11 year for providing financial support to Al-Qaeda members within the Kingdom and promoting foreign fighting over the Internet.
The court handed the thirteenth defendant a 10-year prison term for training in the use of weapons and explosives with Al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and then training youth on Saudi soil.
Another defendant was sentenced to 17 years and fined SR100,000 for inciting dissidence via social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
13 Saudis, Bahraini convicted of terrorism
