Saudi king pardons prisoners from the Ismaeli sect

The Saudi official news agency said yesterday that Saudi Arabia's King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz issued a pardon to the Ismaeli Shiite community prisoners convicted of provoking unrest in the kingdom, and those who served more than half of their penalty in the prison.

In a statement to the Saudi news agency, the ruler of Najran district Prince Mashaal Bin Saud al-Faisal said that King Fahd ordered the "release of a group of prisoners who performed half of their imprisonment sentence."