Saudi reformist goes on trial for inciting protest

Source: AFP

RIYADH (AFP) — Prominent Saudi reformist Abdullah al-Hamed and his brother went on trial on Saturday on charges of inciting a women's protest and obstructing security forces, their legal representatives said ...

The charges against Abdullah al-Hamed and his brother Issa are linked to a sit-in by a group of women in Buraida in July to demand that their husbands or brothers, held on suspicion of involvement in a wave of Islamist violence unleashed in Saudi Arabia in 2003, receive a public trial or be released ...

The charge sheet accused the two men of inciting the women to stage a sit-in "to sow sedition and chaos" and of obstructing security forces while they were in a potentially dangerous situation ...

Abdullah al-Hamed, along with Faleh and a third reformist, spent 17 months in jail for demanding a constitutional monarchy before being pardoned by the Saudi monarch in August 2005 ...

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