Saudi court sentences ‘terrorist’ to death for 2004 bombing

A Saudi court has sentenced to death a member of a “terrorist cell” involved in a May 2004 attack on a US company in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern port city of Yanbu, which killed six foreigners and a policeman, state media say.

On Sunday, the court also handed jail terms ranging from three to 12 years to 10 other individuals for assisting in the attack, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

According to the SPA, the assailants killed two Americans, two Britons, an Australian, a Canadian, as well as a Saudi individual in Saudi Arabia’s oil and petrochemical hub ten years ago.

The news agency said the defendant, who was sentenced to death, was convicted of making the explosives used in the assault and receiving training by a member of the group who was killed in the attack.

The other members of the group were convicted on less serious charges, including sheltering one of the assailants, possessing weapons, and financing the attack.

The news agency did not name the man sentenced to death or the other defendants, identifying them only by numbers.

“Suspect number one was convicted of participating with the terrorist cell that carried out the suicide operation at one of the companies in Yanbu,” the SPA report read, without providing any details on his rank in the cell.

The court gave the convicted individuals 30 days to appeal the sentences.

The court verdict comes while Saudi Arabia, the most important supporter of al-Qaeda-linked militant groups in Syria and Iraq, has not spared any efforts to destabilize the Middle East.