JEDDAH, 17 February 2005 — A panel of three judges in Riyadh warned three jailed reformists yesterday that they could issue a verdict at the next court hearing if they continue to refuse to submit a defense, according to family members who attended the session.
The three academics, Ali Al-Dumaini, Matruk Al-Faleh and Abdullah Al-Hamed, were arrested in March 2004, along with nine others, and charged with causing instability, collecting signatures for a petition and exploiting the Kingdom’s battle with Al-Qaeda terrorists for political gain. The nine were later released after signing undertakings that they would refrain from publicly criticizing the government.
The three reformists have refused to submit a defense to protest their court sessions being held mostly in private. Their case was adjourned for a further three weeks.
The three men have repeatedly called for an open trial. Last August during their first hearing, scores of supporters and relatives were allowed into the courtroom. But their trial was postponed after the judges ruled that the small courtroom could not accommodate the large number of onlookers.
The three-judge panel declared in December that they were not the right court to hear the case, and sent the case to a lower misdemeanor court. But the prosecutors appealed the decision and the case was referred back to the three-man panel.
The prosecution has said it wants to introduce new evidence against two of the three men, mainly an article written by Al-Faleh and a book of memoirs written by Al-Hamed.
“I am very worried about the health of my husband,” said Jamila Al-Ukla, the wife of Matruk Al-Faleh, in an interview with Arab News last week.
Al-Ukla and her son Ameer Al-Faleh were not allowed into the courtroom yesterday.
Muhammad Al-Dumaini, brother of one of the accused, was allowed into the court and said afterward that his brother was losing weight and that he asked the judges to let them go to a hospital or be visited by doctors. All three accused are diabetic.
The outspoken lawyer of the reformists, Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, was also arrested last November and remains imprisoned in the Al-Hair jail.
“My husband wants the trial to be held in public because the charges against them were made in public,” Al-Ukla told reporters outside the court yesterday. “He believes in the centrality of the royal family in Saudi Arabia, the centrality of Islam and in the unity of Saudi Arabia.”
— Additional input from agencies
