On the second day of the
trial, the judge read out the incriminating portions of a confession by a
defendant identified only as No. 12 who accused the primary defendant of
hosting in 2002 Iraqi extremist and opposition members of unnamed Arab
countries in a type of informal gentleman's meeting called a diwaniah. No. 12
identified the Iraqis were affiliated with Al-Jaish Al-Islami and that during
the meeting pamphlets extolling the terrorist group were distributed.
Replying to the charge, the
defendant, identified as No. 1, told the judge that people from different walks
of life and countries used to meet at his house and discuss diverse topics. The
topics were sometimes political, just as newspapers discuss different issues.
He added that the participants were mainly his friends and their visits were
legal and not secretive. No. 1 also denied that anyone attending these meetings
were militants and that no incendiary pamphlets were distributed at these
meetings.
No. 12 accused No. 1 of
accepting cash donations to fund terrorism activities, specifically accepting
cash from a woman working as a doctor at an unnamed university hospital and
another doctor working in Jeddah's Al-Nahda district. No. 1 also appeared on
local television as an expert on relief activities as part of his ruse to take
charitable contributions and use them for terrorism activities, according to
No. 12's confession.
No. 1 denied taking money
from any woman doctor, but said that he used to send No. 12 to collect
donations for approved relief operations in Iraq. No. 1 also claimed he
received letters of thanks from former high-ranking government officials for
his work on raising charity for relief campaigns.
No. 12 also reportedly
claimed in the confession that he accompanied No. 1 to a shop on Jeddah's
Tahliah St. while No. 1 wore a mask. According to the confession, No. 1 told
No.12 that he was wearing a mask because he wanted to collect a donation at a
shopping center but he didn't want the donor to recognize him. No. 12 then
said, according to the confession, that he noticed No. 1's wife at the shopping
center.
No. 1 responded to this
allegation by saying that indeed he went to the shopping center wearing a mask,
but that it was a joke and that his wife was indeed present in a shop but she
didn't have the money to pay for a transaction.
No. 1 also denied another
allegation in No. 12's confession that he gave cash to Rafi Al-Isawi, a manager
of a hospital in Falujah, Iraq, and that he told the manager to spend the money
any way he deemed fit. He also claimed that all of his charity activities were
reported to the Interior Ministry.
Also on Wednesday, the presiding judge in the hearing
expelled two reporters, one of them a television reporter, from the court at
the request of No. 1, who said the two reporters concocted false claims against
him.
