A special criminal court has sentenced a Saudi to 13 years in prison and has prevented him from traveling outside the Kingdom for a further period of 13 years starting from the end of his prison term after it found that he had committed several crimes, including subversion.

The verdict came after it was proved in court that the defendant had, among other things, committed subversion against the government on his social media account. The man had declared that he would perform jihad against the government to free Riyadh, and that he rejected the pledge of allegiance, and instead pledged allegiance to the leader of Al-Qaeda and expressed his support for members of Al-Qaeda and their business outside this country, whom he described as mujahideen. He further said that he believes others like him should be fighting with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.

He has since stated that when he is released, he will go to Al-Qaeda and will renounce his Saudi nationality. The man also encouraged other to write about him in social media in order to pressure the government to set him free.

The court decided to dismiss the rest of prosecution charges due to lack of evidence.