Agencies/Riyadh
A Saudi court yesterday sentenced three more men to death, raising the number of people condemned for their involvement in a suicide attack on expatriate residential compounds in Riyadh in 2003 to eight, the state news agency reported.
Another 40 people were sentenced to terms of two to 35 years for assisting the attacks in northeastern Riyadh, which were part of a three-year campaign by Al Qaeda that killed hundreds and was aimed at destabilising Saudi Arabia.
SPA said all the 40 convicted were Saudis with the exception of one Syrian.
On Sunday, the court sentenced five men to death and 37 others to jail for between three and 35 years as part of the same trial.
Sabq news website reported the five sentenced to death were found guilty of rigging car bombs used in the 2003 attacks.
The suspects were also convicted of plotting and carrying out an attack on a military base near Riyadh and of providing financial and logistical support to their now-slain leader Turki al-Dandani.
Dandani was a top Al Qaeda operative who was eventually killed in clashes with Saudi police.
Saudi authorities set up specialised terrorism courts in 2011 to try dozens of Saudis and foreigners accused of belonging to Al Qaeda or of involvement in the wave of unrest unleashed in 2003.
The attacks prompted authorities to crack down on the jihadist network founded by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US commando operation in May 2011.
The Saudi crackdown prompted many homegrown jihadists to shift base to neighbouring Yemen, where they merged to form the formidable Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The United States considers the group—which has been implicated in failed attacks on US soil—to be the most dangerous franchise of the Islamist network, and has waged a covert drone campaign against it.
Earlier this year Saudi Arabia added Al Qaeda organisations fighting in Syria to its list of banned terror groups.
Saudi Arabia has put on trial hundreds of accused militants in recent months, jailing many of them and sentencing others to death on charges that they played a role in the 2003-06 campaign, or aided those going to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The kingdom has grown increasingly concerned about radicalisation this year because the war in Syria has spurred what they see as a surge in online militancy. They are worried about a new Al Qaeda campaign of attacks.
