Saudi Sentences Protester to 30 Years Over Bahrain A Saudi court has sentenced a citizen to 30 years in prison for leading demonstrations in 2011 against a crackdown on Shiite Muslims in neighboring Bahrain. The official Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday that the man, whose name was not released, was also fined $40,000. The Specialized Criminal Court in the capital, Riyadh, convicted the man of leading anti-government protests in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The protesters burned police cars and threw rocks and firebombs at security officers, demanding the withdrawal of Arab Gulf forces from Bahrain Protests erupted in eastern Saudi Arabia, home to most of the country's minority Shiites, the same year that Saudi-led Gulf forces intervened in Bahrain to quell Shiite-led riots that threatened to topple the tiny island nation's Sunni monarch.