RIYADH, Sept 19: A Saudi academician arrested over remarks condoning suicide bombings was sentenced to five years in prison on Sunday for "sowing sedition and inciting disobedience to the ruler", his son said.

Saeed bin Zair, who was denied access to a lawyer, will appeal against the Riyadh court's verdict, said the son, Abdullah, who attended the hearing along with a handful of close relatives and a human rights representative.

"The verdict was announced in the absence of a lawyer" who was never appointed, Abdullah said following the more than two-hour session. "The judge said there was no need for a lawyer according to Shariat", he said.

After the verdict was read, plain-clothed police officers scuffled with members of bin Zair's family and friends who tried to approach the defendant as he was led out of the judge's quarters.

Mufleh al-Qahtani, representative of the Saudi National Human Rights Association (NHRA) who was present during Sunday's session, said it had "followed the usual practice."

Commenting on the restrictions concerning public access to the trial, Mr Qahtani, who along with another NHRA member was barred from attending last week's hearing, said that a judge had the discretion to hold trials in camera.

The interior ministry said in April that 54-year-old bin Zair, who is considered a hardliner, had been detained because of remarks in which he backed suicide bombings in Riyadh that targeted Muslim and non-Muslim residents.

In an April 15 appearance on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, the former professor of mass communications "described the terrorist acts committed by the deviant group as being directed at non-Muslims, condoning the killing of Muslims (in the process) by those who carry them out," an official said.

However, judge Saad al-Sheddi made no reference on Sunday to bin Zair's comments on suicide bombings, the son said. "The judge did not go into the details of my father's comments to the press. He said the five-year sentence is a punishment merely for his appearance on Al-Jazeera and speaking in a mosque," said Abdullah. -AFP