Four Saudi women among 5 jailed for terror links

Five women (four Saudis and a Yemeni) have been sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison for joining al-Qaeda to support terrorism and finance it.

They have been banned from travel for periods similar to their jail terms. The head of the group has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Meanwhile, a special court sentenced 14 terror suspects to prison for periods ranging between six months and 23 years for plotting to attack U.S. soldiers in Qatar and Kuwait, the Saudi Press Agency reported. They represent the second group in the cell of 41.

The first group of 13 - 11 Saudis, a Qatari and an Afghan citizen - were sentenced to up to 30 years in prison on Tuesday.

Separately, two Saudi citizens were sentenced to death on Monday after being convicted of attacking a police station with Molotov cocktails in Awamiya in the Eastern Province.

The court ruled on Tuesday that the 13 men had exploited Saudi territory “to form a terrorist cell seeking to carry out a terrorist operation in the state of Qatar against American forces, supplying the cell with arms and money for that operation, recruiting people for that cell.”

The men were also convicted of “preparing to participate in a terrorist operation in the state of Kuwait targeting American forces there,” SPA added.

The accused leader of the group, a Qatari man, was sentenced to 30 years in jail, after which he would be expelled from Saudi Arabia, while the other 12 were jailed for between 18 months and 18 years, SPA said.

They were among a group of 41 people rounded up in 2011 on suspicion of forming a terrorist cell that planned to hit US forces in Qatar and Kuwait. Two people had already been sentenced to death in June for taking part in forming a terrorist group and other crimes. Several others have received multi-year jail sentences.

Last month, four Saudi men were sentenced to death for their role in one of the Kingdom’s “bloodiest terror cells.”

A special criminal court in Riyadh jailed “as many as 20” others for between two and 23 years for a variety of crimes. These included embracing deviant thinking contrary to the teaching of the Qur’an.

The defendants were also convicted of fighting abroad and purchasing five tons of aluminum nitrate — which can be used to make explosives.

They were also found guilty of booby-trapping vehicles to kill policemen, carrying out suicide bombings inside the country, planning to explode oil pipelines and killing foreigners as well as Islamic religious leaders, SPA said.

This article was first published in Saudi Gazette on Oct. 22, 2014.