JEDDAH, 7 November 2004 — The Kingdom will put on trial four Saudis suspected of carrying out a series of gun attacks that killed local officials and policemen in the northern town of Al-Jouf, an Interior Ministry official said yesterday.
“Higher authorities have approved the transfer of the cases related to the killings and shootings that took place in Al-Jouf between March 2002 and early 2003 to the court,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the official as saying.
The official did not name the four suspects and did not link them to Al-Qaeda terror network, blamed for a series of bombing and shooting incidents in the country since May 2003 in which about 100 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded.
The ministry official said the men had fired at security forces and kidnapped a foreign resident. They also killed Abdul Rahman Al-Saheebani, a local court judge, Dr. Hamad Al-Wardi, undersecretary at Al-Jouf governorate, and Brig. Hamoud Al-Rabie, a senior police officer in the region.
“The four were convicted of plotting and committing the crimes,” the official said, adding that the Shariah court would decide the punishment for them after trial.
Interior Minister Prince Naif had denied suggestions that foreign hands were behind the Al-Jouf attacks. “There is too much of exaggeration about crime in Al-Jouf, which is part of our country. It is like any other city in the Kingdom,” he said.
Prince Naif said the shooting incidents in Al-Jouf might have been the result of personal vendetta or caused by elements that wanted to undermine the country’s security. “But we cannot say foreign hands were behind the attacks and I rule out that possibility,” he said.
