A Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni man to death Sunday for a knife attack on a Spanish theatre group, state television said, amid a controversial push to ease decades-old restrictions on entertainment.
Court also sentenced an accomplice to 12 and a half years in jail for the November 11 attack during a live performance in Riyadh, which state media linked to al-Qaeda, and which Madrid said left four performers wounded. “The criminal court issues a preliminary ruling handing the death sentence to the perpetrator of the terrorist attack... In Riyadh,” the official Al-Ekhbariya television reported.
The assailant, identified by Saudi police as 33-year-old Yemeni, went on a stabbing spree during a musical in King Abdullah Park, one of the venues hosting “Riyadh Season” entertainment festival.