JEDDAH: The Riyadh Criminal Court has begun the hearings of three people who are accused of forming a terror cell.

Nine years ago, two of them murdered an intelligence officer in Al-Qassim. The other one planned to kill a Special Emergency Forces commander. The three collected large sums of money, and were in possession of a variety of weapons.

During the hearings, the first defendant acknowledged his cooperation with the second in the assassination of his uncle, Col. Nasser Al-Othman, while he was on a holiday.

The session lasted about an hour and the prosecutor presented a total of 45 charges against the three men. He demanded the execution or a discretionary penalty for the first and second, and a discretionary penalty for the third.

The first defendant expressed his remorse for the murder of his uncle, acknowledging that he had helped in carrying out the crime by tying the victim’s hands and feet and then filming the murder.

The accused murderers justified their act by saying, “The victim is an infidel because of his work in the intelligence department.”

The prosecutor said: “The accused claimed insanity during the period of investigation and pointed that he had misled the investigating authority by concealing his part in the delivery of wanted men to Tabuk in order to facilitate their travel to join Al-Qaeda.”

The prosecutor said during the reading of the charges against the second defendant that he had killed an officer in conjunction with the first defendant. He also tried to plan the murder of the Special Emergency Forces commander in Al-Qassim.

The prosecutor said that the accused had sought to form a terrorist cell in Saudi Arabia. He also provided financial support to Al-Qaeda and planned to carry out terrorist operations inside the Kingdom.