The Court of Cassation in Saudi Arabia dropped the...

The Court of Cassation in Saudi Arabia dropped the death sentence for three men accused of taking part in a series of armed robberies targeting a number of local Saudi banks and replaced it with imprisonment, but upheld the death sentence for a fourth suspect described as the leader of the four-member gang. The four had earlier appealed the sentence. The court ordered the revision of the death sentence imposed by an earlier three-judge special judicial committee. The four suspects are three Saudi nationals and a Pakistani. Two Saudis and the Pakistani had their death sentences dropped while the court upheld the death sentence for the fourth, the Saudi gang leader. The group was wanted in connection with drug trafficking, prostitution and blackmail. The suspects were arrested shortly after committing their last two robberies in October 2003. The Court of Cassation took into consideration the young age of the three men and the fact that they had no previous criminal record. Two of the three were younger brothers of the gang leader and were said to have been tempted into joining the gang. A woman involved with the gang was sentenced to five years in prison.