RIYADH: Saudi prisons have registered an increase in the number of inmates who have links with terrorist organizations. Interior Ministry figures showed that there were 2,300 Saudis who traveled to Syria to join Daesh and the Nusra Front.

The total number of prisoners detained for such crimes were down 60 percent in November 2013 at 2,289, after they were previously 5,501 in December 2010. Today however, the number of prisoners stands at 4,209, according to the director of the Al-Haer Prison.

One 25-year-old prisoner said he went to fight in Syria because his relatives from his mother's side were Syrians. "I wanted to help them," he said. However, he was shot in the back by a sniper in Idlib after fighting for two years in the ranks of the Al-Nusra Front. He is paralyzed from the waist down.

He said that most of the prisoners were young and left for Syria on their own after they read and saw news reports posted in social media.

Among the prisoners is a 17-year-old. He traveled to Syria but later changed his mind and gave himself up to the authorities.

Of those held is a 27-year-old from Al-Kharj, south Riyadh, who spent six months in the Al-Mohajreen organization which is tied to Daesh. He returned to the Kingdom after he feared for the life of his wife and daughters. He said the news and the clips influenced him to go to Syria. He departed from Riyadh to Egypt and then Istanbul were he was smuggled into Syria. Another older prisoner fought in Afghanistan for 10 years.

Analyst Al-Ameen Mustapha said that unlike Al-Qaeda, which had a presence in Saudi Arabia 10 years ago, Daesh does not have a network. It plans bloody terror attacks such as what happened in the Eastern Province in May.