Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia has sentenced nine Al Qaida operatives for
trying to assassinate the kingdom’s leaders.

A Riyad court has sentenced members of an alleged Al Qaida cell to jail
upon conviction of attempting to kill Saudi leaders.

Prosecutors said the cell, comprised of eight Saudis and a Yemeni, plotted to kill King Abdullah as well as Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef.

Prosecutors said two members of the cell worked on a plan to kill the
king in 2009. They said the other seven plotted to kill Mohammed, then a
deputy interior minister and regarded as director of the kingdom’s
counter-insurgency campaign.

A statement by the Riyad Criminal Court termed the defendants Takfiris,
the term usually given by Saudi authorities for Al Qaida operatives. The
defendants were sentenced to up to eight years on convictions that included recruitment for Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, also active in Yemen.

The cell also sought to target Westerners in the kingdom, the statement
said. The statement said the cell engaged in e-mail communications with Al
Qaida leaders in Yemen.

One of the defendants was said to have traveled to Iran on his way to
join the Taliban war in Afghanistan. Another defendant was said to have
raised funds for AQAP and received some $30,000.

  Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, Riyad Criminal Court, Saudi court convicts Al Qaida cell for assassination plot against King, Takfiris