Saudi prince gets 10-year sentence for drug smuggling

PARIS: Saudi Prince Nayef al-Shaalan was sentenced in absentia on Wednesday to 10 years in jail on charges of involvement in a cocaine smuggling gang, at the outcome of his trial in France.   

The 53-year-old prince, who is not in line for the Saudi throne, was one of 10 people handed jail terms of four to 10 years in connection with an operation which landed two tonnes of cocaine at an airfield outside Paris in 1999.   

Prince Nayef was convicted of illegally importing drugs, of complicity in the transport, detention and provision of drugs and of criminal conspiracy. He is accused of providing a jet to transport the drugs from Colombia.   

Absent during the trial near Paris, the prince denies any involvement in the drug-trafficking ring. A Saudi representative at the hearing said he intended to appeal.   

A grandson of Saudi Arabia's founding monarch Abdulaziz, the prince is the subject of an international arrest warrant after failing to appear at an initial hearing in the case.   

He was indicted on the basis of testimony from three Columbians in a separate drugs trial in the United States.