The appeals court took the decision after looking into the case of the so-called Umm Al-Qura scam in which the real estate company allegedly swindled the money from about 14,000 shareholders, who also included women investors.

This is the fourth time the court is rejecting the verdict as it considered the company that handled the shares as a “medium.”

It also argued that the case comes under the jurisdiction of the general court and not the administrative court.

The Court of Grievances had earlier refused to take up the case saying it did not come under its jurisdiction, but because of the insistence of the plaintiffs it took up the case and asked the defendant to pay SR2 billion to the shareholders.

The shareholders said they have been waiting for five years to get their money back as their case has been shuttling between the administrative and appeal courts and the Capital Market Authority.

The administrative court had issued a number of verdicts in favor of some shareholders asking the defendant to pay them SR2 billion.

The shareholders had earlier presented documents to the court to prove their rights after they filed a case against the Umm Al-Qura for Hotel Services asking the company to pay back more than SR2 billion they had invested in the company, which stopped distributing profits and closed its doors after seven months of operations.