17 handed up to 25 years for terrorism in Kingdom

A court has sentenced 17 Al-Qaeda suspects to between three and 25 years for murder and attacks on the Kingdom’s oil facilities, SPA said. The defendants, 16 Saudis and a Yemeni, were convicted of “launching terror attacks, targeting oil sites, and carrying out assassinations, the agency reported. The court, which handed down the sentences late on Tuesday, also accused the suspects of “establishing Al-Qaeda training camps,” inside Saudi Arabia. Two defendants were sentenced to 25 years in prison, one man was sentenced to 15 years, and two others were each jailed for 12 years. The other 11 defendants received jail terms ranging from three to six years. In June 2011, Saudi courts began trying dozens of people accused of involvement in deadly attacks between 2003 and 2006. The authorities later launched an all-out campaign to eradicate Al-Qaeda in the country. According to SPA, the preliminary verdicts were issued by the specialized criminal court after the appeal court rejected previous court verdicts issued against the suspected militants. The court banned all the Saudi defendants from traveling abroad for one to 25 years. The Yemeni, who is imprisoned for three and a half years will be deported after completing his jail term and will not be allowed to enter the Kingdom. The public prosecutor as well as Defendants 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17, have rejected the new court verdicts that were announced in the presence of defense lawyers and relatives of suspected militants. From arabnews