A Saudi court on Monday sentenced three citizens to death and handed five others jail terms between 25 and 30 years for pledging allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

The official Saudi news agency said the eight defendants were part of a cell containing 86 accused persons in total.

It said apart from the aforementioned charge, the eight defendants were also accused of plotting to assassinate some Saudi figures upon instructions from the head of Al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia.

However, the verdicts against the eight defendants can be appealed, according to the Saudi news agency.

It did not provide any details about the remaining 78 members of the cell .

Saudi courts have started looking into dozens of cases in which thousands of people were involved since 2011.

Rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of using its campaign against extremists to crack down on political dissent.

AA