Saudi Arabia: Man handed death penalty for Awamiyah shootings

The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh handed on Tuesday the death penalty to a terror suspect who was convicted of several crimes, including incidents of firing at security forces in Al-Awamiyah village, Qatif in the Eastern Province.

The court gave the convict 30 days to appeal the verdict, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The court also ordered confiscation of a motorcycle, on which the convict carried out most of the attacks.

The charges against him included firing at traffic patrol team and injuring them while they were performing their duty at a traffic square in Al-Awamiyah and shooting and wounding another traffic patrol team at Al-Mugheera Street. He was involved in shooting incidents targeting security personnel in a number of other locations in Al-Awamiyah.

The convict was also found guilty of firing at a man suspected to be a police informer.

The man gave shelter to a group of people who were accused of attacking security personnel and patrol police teams, in addition to failing to inform police about them.

The charges against him also included attacking a man with a cleaver following a dispute between them, firing gun into the air to threaten another man, illegal possession of drugs, wireless sets as well as a revolver and Kalashnikov machinegun with an ulterior design of creating sedition, and undermining the Kingdom’s security.

Earlier in October, the Special Criminal Court sentenced two men convicted of taking part in rioting in Al-Awamiyah to death.

This story was originally posted on the Saudi Gazette on Tuesday Dec.2, 2014.