Saudi Arabia's Specialised Criminal Court has sentenced four men to prison for travelling abroad to fight in Syria's civil war, local and state media reported on Sunday. King Abdullah decreed in February that citizens involved in fighting overseas faced up to 20 years in prison in a bid to prevent the radicalisation of young people who might then turn against their own government.
"The accused were proven to have ... quit their obedience to the ruler by travelling abroad to fight," the official Saudi Press Agency reported.