Saudi Arabia jails two over 2011 protests

Convicts sentenced to three and four years in jail and banned from travelling abroad for four years

DUBAI: A court in Saudi Arabia has convicted two Saudi citizens of trying to organise mass Arab Spring-style protests in 2011 and sentenced them to three and four years in jail, local media reported on Thursday.

The Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper reported that the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh found the two unnamed defendants guilty of “heeding the calls of [the] ideologically deviant to cause chaos and participate in demonstrations billed as the ‘Hunayn Revolution’” of March 11, 2011.

The two were sentenced to three and four years in jail and were banned from travelling abroad for four years starting from their release. The court cleared a third suspect of any charges for lack of evidence, the newspaper reported.

Other Saudi newspapers carried similar reports. The newspapers gave no details on when the suspects were detained and if they have already completed their sentences.

The Saudi Justice ministry did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.