DAMMAM, 12 February — The body of Abdul Aziz Al-Koohaji, a 20-year-old Saudi student who was murdered in the US city of Denver last month, was buried here yesterday. The funeral prayers at the Faisal ibn Turki Mosque were attended by a large number of friends and relatives.
The body was brought home from the United States late Saturday night. Police last Tuesday recovered the body dumped in a landfill outside Denver after the Jan. 11 murder.
According to an informed source, the body was not putrefied beyond recognition even though it lied in a pile of medical waste, toxic materials, broken glass and decaying organic matter for about three weeks. This was because of the extreme winter temperature touching -20 degree Celsius in the area.
A Denver court has charged Naif Al-Yousef, a suspect detained in the United States, with first degree murder and conspiring to commit murder. Al-Yousef has already confessed to the crime in collusion with his friends Tariq Al-Dossary and Mishael Al-Suwaidi who are in custody in the Kingdom.
On the first day of his appearance in the court, the judge charged Al-Yousef with two crimes one of which carried capital punishment if convicted. He will appear before the court again next Friday. Before this an attorney will be appointed for his defense.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the prosecution said she believed that no decision had been taken on demands for the extradition of Al-Yousef to Saudi Arabia. She said the two countries, however, were exchanging information on progress in the case. Police have yet to determine the motive behind the murder, she added.
Denying rumors about Al-Yousef's confessions in the court, the spokeswoman said legal procedures in a case such as this would take a long time to complete. Investigators and relatives of the murdered will be the first witnesses to appear in the court, she said.
Interior Minister Prince Naif had said the Saudi security authorities were taking steps to apply officially for the extradition of Al-Yousef through the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
Prince Naif said he hoped that the US officials "will respond to the Saudi request favorably". "Once he is brought here we will conduct the required inquiries and then hand them to the Shariah court to receive the deterrent punishment," he said.
Al-Koohaji's relatives, who demanded that the killers be tried under Shariah regulations, have welcomed the minister's statement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
