Ten Egyptian men were sentenced by a Saudi judge on Monday for up to 18 years on account of their gathering in order to organize an event to commemorate the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Two relatives told AFP that the 10 were found guilty of trying to establish a "terrorist group". The men were arrested in October 2019 for trying to organize the event.

Similar versions of the event were held in previous years without anything of a sort happening. 

The men were released without any charges in December 2020 and were again arrested the following July. 

Amnesty: A travesty of justice

Amnesty international, who last year spoke out against the injustice the men are facing, campaigned for their release and called the proceedings a "travesty" of justice.

Moreover, the rights organization said the men have been denied "regular family contact" and were only allowed to meet with lawyers appointed by the government. It further noted that two of the men were "elderly and in ill health". Three of them are over 60 years old.

Amnesty explained that the men were criticized by Saudi officials for the event because they failed to include a photo of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in the announcement poster.

Recently, it was announced that a Saudi court sentenced in August two people from the Howeitat tribe to 50 years in prison, noting that the reason was "their opposition to the forced expulsion from their homes to implement the NEOM project."

The ruling included a "travel ban on the two of them for 50 years,” due to their refusal of the forced eviction of their tribe members from their houses in the Tabuk area of northwest Saudi Arabia.