DHAKA: A Saudi court has jailed five people for up to 30 years on charges including plotting to blow up an oil refinery on behalf of Al-Qaeda.

Saudi state media reported on Monday, says The Straits Times.

The official SPA news agency gave no details of when the alleged plot against the refinery in the Red Sea port of Yanbu took place.

But the trial is believed to be the latest in a series of prosecutions begun in July 2011 for alleged offences committed during the peak of Al-Qaeda violence in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006.

The court found that some of the defendants had ‘plotted to blow up the Yanbu oil refinery and participated in preparing car bombs to that end’, SPA reported.

BDST: 1641 HRS, JAN 06, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor