A Saudi court has sentenced three reformists to jail terms of between six and nine years for "stirring up sedition and disobeying the ruler".
The three activists were arrested in March 2004 after urging the rulers to move towards a constitutional monarchy and speed up reforms.
They refused to defend themselves on the grounds that the trial was taking place behind closed doors.
Human rights representatives were also barred from the courtroom.
Using Western terminology, causing instability and collecting signatures for a petition reportedly were among the accusations levelled against them.
One hopes this sort of thing doesn't sour relations over a cordial White House breakfast too much:
Today, we renewed our personal friendship and that between our nations. In our meeting we agreed that momentous changes in the world call on us to forge a new relationship between our two countries — a strengthened partnership that builds on our past partnership, meets today's challenges, and embraces the opportunities our nations will face in the next sixty years.
It couldn't be that spreading freedom and democracy is a secondary concern for US–Saudi relations, could it?
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