Ali al-Nimr’s sentence was reduced to 10 years in jail by the Specialized Criminal Court on Sunday, according to human rights group Reprieve.
His father, Mohammed al-Nimr, who attended the hearing in Riyadh, said his son, now 26, should be released in eight or nine months after having already spent more than nine years “of his youth and part of his childhood” in prison.
The nephew of the executed firebrand cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Ali al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 at the age of 17 for taking part in protests calling for social and political reforms in Saudi Arabia’s restive Qatif province. He was given a death sentence.
A court later convicted him of charges including belonging to a terror cell, attacking police with Molotov cocktails, incitement and stoking sectarianism, according to state media.