BBC's Simon Cumbers Killer Sentenced to Death in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has delivered the death sentence to the man who killed BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers in June 2004.

Cumbers was in the country filming a report about al-Qaeda near Riyadh.

Meanwhile, two other men were also sentenced to death for terror offences and five other defendants were each given 30-year jail terms at the special criminal court in Riyadh.

All the defendants were accused of multiple murders in separate attacks in Riyadh and Alkhobar over a period spanning several years as well as the shooting of the BBC crew.

Cumbers father has "mixed feelings" about the death sentence for his son's killer.

"I have mixed feelings about the sentencing," said Cumbers family in a statement issued to Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

"On the one hand, I am pleased that the murderer has had his fate decided and that the long wait is over. It won't bring Simon back, but it puts an end to the waiting.

"On the other hand, both Bronagh and I sympathise with Dubayti's [the sentenced man] parents, who must now suffer that tremendous loss that we feel."

Irish national Cumbers died aged 36 years old, when gunmen opened fire on the BBC crew 10 years ago.

Cumbers, originally from Navan, County Meath, in the Republic of Ireland died at the scene of the shooting while his colleague, BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner, was paralysed in the June 2004 attack.