Saudi Arabia has convicted 95 people of links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and sentenced them to prison terms of one to three years, a Saudi human rights campaigner says. Saudi authorities are holding 400 others in jail, Abdelaziz al-Khamis, head of the London-based Saudi Center for Human Rights Studies, said in an interview. He said authorities had detained a total of 2,500 for questioning since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, most in the past three months as the United States geared up for possible war against Iraq. Government officials weren’t immediately available for comment. A press office spokeswoman at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, who did not give her name, said officials who could discuss the subject had left for the night. The 95 were convicted of charges that included belonging to or supporting al-Qaida, and received sentences from one to three years, al-Khamis said late last week. Instead of holding trials, a cleric who had read official intelligence reports “came to the prison cells, asked the prisoners a few questions and sentenced them on the spot,” al-Khamis said. Full Story
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