The court held a second session to listen to the defenses of Defendant Nos. 7, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15 in the presence of their lawyers.
At the start of the session, Defendant No. 14 apologized to the court for a verbal attack at the first session in which he appeared, claiming the trial was prejudiced. The judge accepted his apology and promised all defendants would have a fair trial.
“When I attacked the court and the judges I was going through a difficult time. I regret my actions and apologize to the court,” the defendant said.
The charges against the six defendants included joining Al-Qaeda and a terrorist cell affiliated to it, firing at security forces, acquiring weapons, bombs and explosives, hiding terrorists, receiving training in the use of arms to attack the state, traveling to a combat zone without official permission, participating in the bombing of three residential complexes in Riyadh in 2004 which killed and injured 239 people, collecting money to finance terrorist operations, adopting an ideology against the Qur’an and Sunnah and killing and terrorizing innocent people.
Some of the defendants were also charged with forging travel documents, stealing cars, recruiting people to join their terrorist cell, establishing training centers and passing over confidential information to foreign circles about some of the defendants who were being held in connection with the case.
