Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian convicted of...

Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian convicted of carrying out a wave of bombings in Saudi Arabia in 2000 and early 2001 were freed by the Gulf state.
Two of the men had been sentenced to death and, if the sentences had been ratified by King Fahd, faced public beheading. The others had been given lengthy prison sentences.
"They have been granted clemency," lawyer Salah al-Hejailan told Reuters by telephone. The men were accused of carrying out several bombings in Saudi Arabia, including a November 17, 2000 attack which killed Briton Christopher Rodway.
Several other Western expatriates working in the oil-rich kingdom were wounded in separate attacks. Saudi authorities blamed the bombings on a turf war over illegal but lucrative alcohol sales. Families of the jailed men have said local Islamic militants were responsible.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw welcomed the men's release. "I greatly welcome the release of British citizens from custody in Saudi Arabia. It has obviously been a very difficult time for the men and for their families," he said.
Violence in the kingdom continued after the men were arrested. In the biggest attack yet, suspected al Qaeda bombers killed 35 people at Western compounds in Riyadh in May 2003.
Two of the accused - Briton Alexander "Sandy" Mitchell and Canadian William Sampson - were shown on Saudi television in February 2001, confessing to attacks in the capital Riyadh.
The confessions were the only evidence against them made public. They later retracted their confessions and their families and friends have said they believed the men, all held in solitary confinement, had been tortured. Lawyers said Sampson suffered a nervous breakdown.
Mitchell and Sampson were sentenced to death while the four other Britons received sentences of up to 18 years, Hejailan said. "The grant of clemency is even more remarkable considering the severity of the punishments all the accused were facing," the lawyer said.
The four Britons sentenced to lengthy jail terms were James Patrick Lee, Les Walker, James Cottle and Peter Brandon. Hejailan dismissed the official explanation for the bombings, saying alcohol sales would have earned the men he represented only a few thousand dollars a year and "could not possibly be a rationale for these crimes".
"Five of the detainees have insisted all along on the retraction of their early televised confessions and have refused any plea bargain to admit guilt for the sake of early deportation," Hejailan said.