Riyadh: A Saudi court yesterday sentenced 15 people to death for spying for the kingdom's rival Iran, local media and a source close to the case said, in a move likely to heighten regional tensions. The source said that most of the 15 Saudis were members of the kingdom's Shi'ite minority.

Their trial opened in February, a month after Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran over the burning of the Saudi embassy and a consulate by Iranian demonstrators protesting the kingdom's execution of Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The most serious charge against them was high treason.