Royal Order : Participants in Hostilities outside the Kingdom or Members of Radical Religious, Intellectual Groups Receive 3-20 years in Prison

Whoever participates or is involved in hostilities outside the Kingdom or joins radical religious and intellectual groups or currents, will be sentenced by no less than three years and not more than twenty years in prison. However, the punishment will be increased to no less than five years and no more than thirty years in prison for armed forces servicemen, a royal order stated here today.

Citing the purposes of Islamic Sharia to preserve the nation's religion, security, unity and cohesion, maintaining the State's entity, and blocking the pretexts targeting the enforcement of Islamic law and public order and interest, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued the royal order which will go into effect after 30 days of publishing it in the official Gazette.

Following is the text of the Royal Order:

"We, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

Emanating from the purposes of Islamic Sharia in maintaining the nation's religion, security, unity and cohesion, and staying away from sedition, fighting and struggle in accordance with the following verses of the holy Quran :"And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah" and "And this is my straight path (sirati mustaqiman), Follow it, then, and follow not other ways that take you away from His path" and as the Prophet Mohammed, (peace be upon him), said :" Whoever distances a span from the group, is driven out of Islam", and based on the rules of Islamic Sharia to set the necessary guarantees to save the state's entity against whoever dares to tamper with the stable constitutional approach of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or its public order on which its security was built and its people have become unanimous on by the guidance of Allah and on the basis of our duty towards curbing the pretexts conducing to incurring our legitimate approach and have it subjected by those who adopt strange thoughts which jump beyond the regularities of freedom through abstract adoption of ideas and interpretations to practices defecting public order, targeting security, stability, tranquility and public tranquility and damaging the status of the Kingdom at the Arab, Islamic and international levels as well as its relations with other countries, including offending the country and its figures and after having reviewed a number of pertinent articles of the Rule's Statute and based on the public interest of the nation, we have ordered the following:

First: Whoever commits any of the following acts will be sentenced to no less than three years and no more than twenty years in prison:

1- Participating in hostilities outside the Kingdom, in any way, as per the referred above prescription in the preamble of this order.

2- Belonging to a radical religious or intellectual currents or groups, and the like, or those classified as terrorist organizations internally, regionally or internationally, or supporting or adopting its ideology or approach in any way, or vowing sympathy with it by any means, or providing any financial or moral support for it, or instigating for any part of that or encouraging or promoting it by saying or writing in any way.

If the perpetrator of any of the above mentioned acts belongs to the military forces, he will receive imprisonment for no less than five years and no more than thirty years.

Second: What have been stated in provision (First) of this order will not contradict with any penalty prescribed in the kingdom's legislations or laws.?

Third: All rulings mentioned in laws controlling terrorist crimes and funding them will be applied on all acts mentioned in the first provision of this order, including the rulings regarding apprehension, arrest, inquiring, investigation, prosecution and trial.

Fourth: A committee is to be formed from representatives of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, Ministry of Justice, Grievances Board and Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution to set up a list, periodically updated, of currents and groups mentioned in (paragraph 2) of provision (First).

Fifth: The Minister of Interior is to submit to us without delay the occurrence of arrests, apprehensions, investigation, and prosecution on the crimes mentioned in provision (First) of this order.

Sixth: The above provisions of this order will go into effect after thirty days of publishing it in the official Gazette".

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

View the original article here