The men were gunned down during reconciliation talks aimed at settling a long-drawn dispute between two families over a piece of land at a rented rest house in the town of Sail, 30 km from Taif.

In the first sitting of the court, all eight suspects were brought to the courtroom under tight security. They were the prime accused, his father, four brothers and two uncles. The judge asked them for explanations on several points.

Lawyers of the close relatives of the victims demanded capital punishment for the accused.

The ill-fated reconciliation meeting was called by tribal chiefs. The two disputing parties had agreed on the terms and conditions of the reconciliation and were close to signing an agreement when someone stabbed a youth in the other camp. Provoked by the incident, the father of the injured youth took out a gun and started spraying bullets to the opposite camp killing an 18-year-old boy on the spot and injuring 22 people. But five others, including the 63-year old father of the killed boy, succumbed to their wounds at the hospital.

Five of the victims were brothers while the sixth was a son of one of the brothers. The eight accused will be brought to the court once again to be handed the verdict.  

There are 96 people from two families involved in the case, many of whom are in need of help after losing their breadwinners.

Reconciliation talks are common in Saudi Arabia, often held between different tribes or within the same tribe in order to resolve conflicts — often involving land claims or for blood money negotiations.