The jailing of 12 Shiite Muslim men in Saudi Arabia has highlighted the dangers for fans who want to travel for sporting events such as the World Cup, according to human rights campaigners and an exiled Saudi Shiite.

The men were summoned, along with more than 100 other fans, for questioning after being filmed singing a religious song celebrating the birth of Imam Ali, an important figure in the Shiite Muslim faith at a match between their team, Al Safa, and Al Bukiryah in January. Those 12 jailed have received sentences of either six months or a year, though with little oversight from international bodies of the Saudi prison or legal system, sentence lengths are not always respected.

The men were penalized under the kingdom's cybercrime laws, provisions of which are often used to punish those who commit supposed offences offine too. Many observers of Saudi Arabia consider these laws to be arbitrary, thereby allowing the state, ruled by de facto leader crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, to use them to clamp down on groups and beliefs which do not align with its own.

"These laws have egregious sentences for basic freedom of expression issues," Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told DW. "Anything that can be interpreted as destabilizing the state or insulting the country's leaders can come with very big sentences that can be meted out. And, ultimately, it can be a political decision to decide which fans........

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