RIYADH: A Saudi court has jailed a man for 15 years after convicting him of recruiting 14 nationals to join Al Qaeda's affiliate in neighbouring Yemen, Al-Hayat newspaper reported Thursday.

A Riyadh court specialising in security cases convicted the unnamed Saudi national of recruiting the militants online after he held meetings in Yemen with Al Qaeda leaders, the daily said.

The defendant helped the recruits reach Yemen and issued fake Yemeni identity cards for seven of them, it said.

He set up an email address “to serve members of Al Qaeda in Yemen,” the paper said, quoting the charges list. It said he was coordinating the travel of the 14 recruits via email.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni franchise of the global militant network, was born out of a merger between the Saudi and Yemeni branches of Al Qaeda in 2009.

Washington considers AQAP the most dangerous Al Qaeda affiliate because it has been linked to a number of attempted attacks on the US homeland.

The group claimed responsibility for the brazen daylight storming of the Yemeni defence ministry complex on Dec.5 in Sanaa, in which 56 people were killed, among them expatriate medical staff.