A Riyadh criminal court hearing case against terror suspects ordered 24 hours imprisonment of a defense lawyer and cancelation of his brief to represent the two suspects on Saturday.
The sitting judge also ordered a day’s jail punishment to a female journalist for falsely claiming she worked for a local daily. However, the punishment against the reporter was not implemented.
The defense lawyer was imprisoned for disorderly behavior at the court. The court adjourned the hearing to next week.
The public prosecutor had prepared charges against the defendants on 12 counts.
These included attempting to form public opinion against the government, destabilizing the state and society and undermining the national development on the basis of Twitter postings. The charges also included calls to stage demonstrations in public squares.
One of the defendants argued that the charges against him were not based on concrete evidence. Certain acts that could be proven were not against the laws of the state and Islamic Shariah, he said. “Everything I did was legitimate even though the public prosecutor described them as violations of Islamic Shariah,” the defendant said.
Criminal court jails defense lawyer
