A total of 5,080 people have been convicted of terrorism
crimes in Saudi Arabia, where al Qaeda launched a campaign in 2003 to overthrow
the Western-allied monarchy, state media said.
The reports did not give a
time frame for the convictions. Saudi Arabia, with the help of foreign experts,
managed to quash an al Qaeda campaign from 2003 to 2006 that targeted
expatriate housing compounds, embassies and oil facilities.
Riyadh destroyed the main al
Qaeda cells within Saudi Arabia, but some militants slipped into neighboring Yemen
and regrouped to form a Yemen-based regional wing that seeks, among other
things, the fall of the US-allied Saudi royal family.
The official news agency SPA
said the cases of 2,215 people had been transferred to a special terrorism
court, quoting a prosecution statement.
“This statement gives
clear results of the progress regarding sending the detainees to justice,”
Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told state television.
Western rights groups have
reported human rights violations in the treatment of alleged militants in Saudi
Arabia, a charge the conservative Muslim country has rejected.
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