RIYADH — The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh on Monday sentenced 17 terror suspects to jail terms.
The convicts belonged to two terror groups, and they included a terrorist who plotted to assassinate the emir of Makkah.
The court gave 23 years in prison to defendant number four who was convicted of several crimes. The convict was found guilty of plotting to assassinate emir of Makkah during the graduation ceremony of a university.
His plan was to poison the emir through a laser device while shaking hands with graduates. The convict abandoned the plan following the cancellation of the emir's plan to shake hands with the graduates.
The charges against the convict also included sending two bags full of weapons from Riyadh to Dammam, traveling to Jordan to hand over money amounting to $250,000 to an Al-Qaeda terrorist who was operating from Iraq, entering Iraq with a fake passport to meet an Al-Qaeda leader, and traveling abroad to meet a Syrian to make investments worth $100 million in the Kingdom so that its profits could be used for terror funding.
Another terror suspect was awarded 20 years in jail and a travel ban was imposed on him after his conviction of several crimes including going to conflict zones in Chechnya and taking part in fighting.
