A special criminal court in Riyadh yesterday heard the charges against 67 terror suspects including 66 Saudis and a Jordanian who allegedly belonged to the Juwair cell as well as a hearing involving the 86-member Khalediya cell.
The prosecutor accused the suspects of embracing the takfiri (branding opponents as infidels) ideology and joining Al-Qaeda inside the Kingdom, maintaining contact with its leaders, giving them shelter and not informing authorities about terrorist plots they had knowledge of.
The suspects are also accused of targeting the Abqaiq refinery, financing terrorism and terrorist operations, providing media support to Al-Qaeda, possessing weapons and explosives, receiving and providing training on making explosives and issuing religious edicts against Saudi rulers.
The prosecutor read out charges to the defendants who were present at the court and gave a copy to each one of them in order to obtain their replies. He also informed them that they have the right to appoint a lawyer to defend their cases and that the Ministry of Justice would pay for legal representation if they could not afford it.
Defendant No. 15 (allegedly of the Khalediya cell) is accused of joining the terrorist organization, giving shelter to a number of wanted suspects after a fight between them and security forces at a villa in King Fahd District and providing transportation to a number of wanted terrorists. He had also allegedly taken part in a plot to attack the site of Apache aircraft inside the Kingdom and providing misleading information to security officers.
Defendant No. 16, also allegedly of the same cell, is accused of sheltering two Al-Qaeda men, Rakan Al-Saikhan and Abdul Rahman Al-Dahlawi. Al-Saikhan was in charge of weapons in the organization and used his house as a hide-out for terrorists.
Defendant No. 17 is accused of providing transportation to Al-Qaeda members, purchasing a satellite Internet facility for SR 6,000 and another communication device for SR 1,500. He also allegedly recruited two militants to the terror organization.
Defendant No. 41, who allegedly belonged to Juwair cell, is accused of establishing relations with Jafal Al-Shammari, a dangerous Al-Qaeda member and one of the participants in the Abqaiq refinery bombing.
Suspects targeted Abqaiq refinery
