RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A Saudi court sentenced a university professor to five years in prison Sunday on charges of sowing dissent after he compared U.S. killings of Iraqi civilians to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks.
Saeed bin Mubarak al-Zaeer, a 57-year-old university professor, was sentenced by the court in the capital Riyadh. The sentencing took place without the presence of a lawyer representing al-Zaeer.
Al-Zaeer was detained by security forces in April after he appeared on the Al-Jazeera television station and made comments comparing the killing of civilians in terror attacks by bin Laden's al-Qaida group with Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces or Palestinians killed by Israelis.
The professor was detained in April for showing "blatant support and compassion for terrorist acts, and his justification of the deeds of its perpetrators -- in spite of how this goes against Islamic teachings," the Interior Ministry said at the time.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-saudi-professor-trial,0,2182726.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines