17 jailed in Saudi for financing terrorism

A Saudi court yesterday sentenced 17 defendants to jail on charges of financing terrorism, the Saudi News Agency reported.

The defendants, 16 of them Saudi and one Senegalese, received jail sentences ranging from between 30 months and 26 years, the Anadolu news agency reported.

This is the third group of defendants in the case, which includes a total of 67 defendants.

The charges included disobeying the ruler by traveling to take part in fighting in places of “sedition”, pursuing a “takfirist” approach, and assisting “misguided individuals” who wanted to travel to Iraq to fight.

In addition to financing terror, the defendants have also been convicted of “insulting the prominent scholars of the Kingdom” and “attempting to turn public opinion against the Saudi state”.

The Senegalese defendant has been sentenced to 11 years in jail; he will be deported at the end of his sentence.

The verdict can be appealed within 30 days, the court said.

On August 25, a Saudi court handed jail sentences of between nine and 33 years against 17 defendants in the same case, while 23 others received jail terms of between three and 22 years two days later.

Rights groups have accused the Saudi government of using its campaign against extremists as a pretext to crackdown on opponents.

In February, the Saudi monarch issued a decree that considered traveling to take part in fighting outside the Kingdom a criminal offence punishable by jail terms of between three and 20 years.