Saudi Islamist Jailed For Five Years For "sowing Sedition"

RIYADH (AFP) - A Saudi Islamist academic arrested over remarks condoning suicide bombings was sentenced to five years in prison for "sowing sedition and inciting disobedience to the ruler", his son told AFP.

Saeed bin Zair, who was denied access to a lawyer, will appeal against the Riyadh court's verdict, said the son, Abdullah, who attended the hearing along with a handful of close relatives and a human rights representative.

"The verdict was announced in the absence of a lawyer," who was never appointed, Abdullah said following the two-hour session.

"The judge said there was no need for a lawyer according to Sharia (Islamic law)," he said Sunday.

After the verdict was read, plain-clothed police officers scuffled with members of bin Zair's family and friends who tried to approach the defendant as he was led out of the judge's quarters.

Mufleh al-Qahtani, representative of the Saudi National Human Rights Association (NHRA) who was present during Sunday's session, said it had "followed the usual practice."

Commenting on the restrictions concerning public access to the trial, Qahtani, who along with another NHRA member was barred from attending last week's hearing, told AFP that a judge had the discretion to hold trials in camera.

The interior ministry said in April that 54-year-old bin Zair, who is considered a hardliner, had been detained because of remarks in which he backed suicide bombings in Riyadh that targeted Muslim and non-Muslim residents.

In an April 15 appearance on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, the former professor of mass communications "described the terrorist acts committed by the deviant group as being directed at non-Muslims, condoning the killing of Muslims (in the process) by those who carry them out," an official said.

However, judge Saad al-Sheddi made no reference Sunday to bin Zair's comments on suicide bombings, the son said.

"The judge did not go into the details of my father's comments to the press. He said the five-year sentence is a punishment merely for his appearance on Al-Jazeera and speaking in a mosque," said Abdullah.

"Addressing the public leads to sowing sedition," he quoted the judge as saying.

The prison sentence was the second for bin Zair who was incarcerated between 1995 and 2003 without being charged.

According to his son, bin Zair rejected the verdict and denied the charges, asking the judge what he had based his verdict on.

He said his father argued that the verdict was devoid of any specific charges and reminded the judge that he "did not give his lawyers the chance to defend him."

Last week's hearing was adjourned as the defendant had refused to enter a plea in the absence of a lawyer.

The son blamed Al-Haer prison, where bin Zair is being held, for not allowing his father to authorise the appointment of an attorney.

Three Saudi reformists are in custody pending trial for calling for constitutional changes. Only one hearing in the case of Matruk al-Faleh, Ali al-Demaini and Abdullah al-Hamed convened since their arrest in March. The second hearing was postponed due to the large number of people who wanted to attend.