Defendant No. 14 told the court that he was proud of what he had done. “I consider this case as a crown on my head and I am proud of fulfilling whatever accusations have been leveled against me,” he said.

The three-member bench on Sunday heard statements from 10 defendants.

Monday’s session, which heard the statements of nine of the 85 defendants, ended at 11.30 a.m. and the judge said the next session would be held shortly to hear the remaining defendants.

The public prosecution, represented by attorneys from the Prosecution and Investigations Commission (PIC), delivered the charges, which included taking part in fighting against security forces and plotting to bomb Saudi Aramco, Prince Sultan Airbase in Al-Kharj and King Khaled Air Base in Khamis Mushayt.

Other charges included forgery, bribery, acquisition and manufacturing of arms and explosives, armed car robbery, association with Al-Qaeda, believing in criminal ideology, spreading deviant thoughts and recruiting young men to terrorism.

The prosecutor is pushing for the death sentence for the defendants for their involvement in deadly operations. He called for the maximum punishment to be handed out if the charges of bribery and acquisition of arms and explosives are proven.

The judge assured the defendants of their right to appoint lawyers to defend them or have them appointed by the government if they could not afford to do so themselves. All of them asked to have lawyers appointed for them except for defendant No. 13, who will appoint lawyer Saad Dhaar Al-Dousari on his own expense.

Defendant No. 14 asked the judge to appoint Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs Prince Muhammad bin Naif as his lawyer. He said he had surrendered to the police and the prince had promised to release him within a month. The man looked mentally ill and would keep on telling the judge that he should be kept in a separate cell, away from noise. The judge said he would ask for a medical report into the man.

Most defendants were given the same charges as they allegedly belonged to one terror cell that had branches in different cities of the Kingdom. The accused who attended Monday’s session were believed to be the most dangerous criminals, belonging to the Al-Dandani cell.

Defendant No. 15 had allegedly tried to bomb some of the ships of a neighboring country in order to trigger a war between the two countries. All defendants were aged between 30 and 40.