JEDDAH, 26 August 2004 — The chief justice in Riyadh has defended the decision taken by a court in the capital to postpone the second hearing in the trial of three defendants, saying the “appropriate” decision was taken in public interest.
“The decision to postpone the hearing was dictated by public interest and was deemed appropriate by the judge to establish justice,” Al-Riyadh Arabic daily quoted Suleiman Al-Muhanna as saying.
Judge Abdul Latif Abdul Latif, a member of the three-man panel trying the activists, announced last Monday that the hearing was postponed because of “noise and disrespect for the court rules.”
More than 100 people, mostly family members and supporters of the three, jostled for space in the Riyadh court to attend the hearing, thus causing chaos and confusion.
The trio Ali Al-Demaini, Matruk Al-Faleh and Abdullah Al-Hamed, have been accused of calling for a constitutional monarchy in the Kingdom and questioning the independence of its judicial system. Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, said the judge postponed the hearing when he saw that the courtroom was not vast enough to hold such a large number of people.
“The role of security agencies is just to keep law and order outside the courtroom,” the spokesman said.
But Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, the defense lawyer, said he and his colleagues believed that the problem was caused by police intervention. “It was the judiciary’s authority to fix the public hearing and attendance. I believe that the security agency at the court interfered and the people who gathered at the court expressed their resentment about it,” Al-Riyadh quoted Lahem as saying.
