DUBAI, February 5 (RAPSI) – A Saudi court on Tuesday sentenced a TV presenter to 12 years in prison for criticizing the authorities and for claiming that Saudi Arabia fostered terrorism and supported al Qaeda, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The court ruled that Wajdi al-Ghazzawi, a journalist and founder of Al-Fajr Media Group, which owns a religious satellite TV channel, is guilty of insulting the king, stirring up sedition, slandering the nation’s reputation and undermining the nation’s prestige and its institutions. The court also ruled that his statements contained extremist ideas.
In 2011, al-Ghazzawi aired a show in which he openly criticized the Saudi authorities.

He was later detained after a show on religious extremism was broadcast in which he said that terrorism and al Qaeda were products of Saudi Arabia.

The authorities claimed during the investigation that al-Ghazzawi received $1.8 million for his “subversive” activity from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed by rebels in 2011 following the NATO-led intervention.

Other local media said the journalist had been banned from travel abroad for 20 years after his sentence. He has the right to appeal.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia passed a law that defines those that “disturb public order” as terrorists and terrorism as any act carried out to disturb public order, undermine the security of society and stability of the state, to endanger its national unity and to suspend the basic law of governance (constitution) or some of its articles, according to the text cited by Human Rights Watch.