JEDDAH: A dangerous defendant in a secret cell of Al-Qaeda has broken his allegiance to the terrorist organization leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi during the procedures of his trial before the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, claiming that he abandoned the group and now swears allegiance to the leadership of the Kingdom. During the second session of the trial, the public prosecutor submitted additional indictments containing a further 20 items of evidence.
The defendant appeared to contradict himself during this second session, and he denounced much of what he said in the first session, including accusations against the country and the security members, and his allegiance to the leader of Al-Qaeda, and on waiving Saudi citizenship.
He refuted all the charges directed at him by the court, including eight charges of embracing takfirist ideology and distributing publications on the same matter; possessing chemicals to make explosives; covering up for a coordinator who recruited young men to send them to areas of conflict in Syria; and his participation in a prohibited rally in front of the counseling and care center in Jeddah, aimed at arousing sedition.
The defendant responded to these charges by saying that they are all incorrect and that he was arrested in front of the center while he was waiting to welcome his companions who were about to be released from the center.
The members of the terrorist cell face charges of joining a secret cell affiliated with Al-Qaeda terrorist group inside the Kingdom, and embracing takfirist ideology in contradiction to the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah methodology; relinquishing allegiance to the leadership of the country; for training on how to make explosives; intending to blow up a Riyadh residential complex; planning to target one of the princes of the Kingdom; and attempting to abduct a mabahith officer after leaving the mosque under the threat of gun and then using him as a hostage.
The defendant appeared to contradict himself during this second session, and he denounced much of what he said in the first session, including accusations against the country and the security members, and his allegiance to the leader of Al-Qaeda, and on waiving Saudi citizenship.
He refuted all the charges directed at him by the court, including eight charges of embracing takfirist ideology and distributing publications on the same matter; possessing chemicals to make explosives; covering up for a coordinator who recruited young men to send them to areas of conflict in Syria; and his participation in a prohibited rally in front of the counseling and care center in Jeddah, aimed at arousing sedition.
The defendant responded to these charges by saying that they are all incorrect and that he was arrested in front of the center while he was waiting to welcome his companions who were about to be released from the center.
The members of the terrorist cell face charges of joining a secret cell affiliated with Al-Qaeda terrorist group inside the Kingdom, and embracing takfirist ideology in contradiction to the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah methodology; relinquishing allegiance to the leadership of the country; for training on how to make explosives; intending to blow up a Riyadh residential complex; planning to target one of the princes of the Kingdom; and attempting to abduct a mabahith officer after leaving the mosque under the threat of gun and then using him as a hostage.
