A special court in Riyadh began sessions yesterday to try 29 people accused of belonging to a cell affiliated to Al-Qaeda to carry out terrorist operations in the Kingdom. Twenty-five of the defendants are Saudis, two Moroccans and two Yemenis.
The list of charges compiled by the attorney general against the accused included supporting and financing terrorist actions inside the Kingdom and abroad, firing at security forces killing one and injuring 12 of them, targeting oil installations, kidnapping innocent victims and carrying out terrorist and sabotage operations inside and outside the Kingdom.
The defendants were also accused of planning to hijack a number of American, British, Italian and Australian aircraft to carry out air raids on a number of installations in the United States, purchasing raw materials and equipment needed for these operations, targeting an American military base in Qatar and embarking on terrorist activities in Bahrain.
At the start of the first session, the attorney general asked the judge to hand over to eight of the accused the charges against them. He called for the Qisas punishment (beheading according to Shariah rules) for all eight of the defendants.
Among the accused was the second man on the list of 19 most wanted terrorists who turned himself in after a bomb attack in Riyadh in May 2003.
The attorney general also called for an appropriate Shariah verdict for one of the accused who was in possession of three narcotic pills.
After receiving the list of charges against him, one defendant from an Arab country, asked for a lawyer to be appointed to defend him. He also asked the judge to allow his father to attend the trial. Another defendant also asked for a Ministry of Justice lawyer and requested that his brother be allowed to attend.
The court also continued yesterday a session to hear the accusations against 16 defendants accused of belonging to two terrorist cells. The court also heard the charges against five defendants allegedly connected to a terrorist cell of 50 people.
The court handed over a copy of the list of charges to each of the accused and informed them that they had the right to appoint lawyers to defend them and if they were unable to do so for financial reasons, the Ministry of Justice would bear the legal costs.
Representatives of the Human Rights Commission and the press attended the two court sessions.
During two sessions yesterday, the court heard the charges against 24 defendants allegedly connected to three terrorist cells including some in the list of 19 wanted terrorists announced by the Ministry of Interior in May 2003. A total of 17 out of the 19 terrorists hailed from nine out of 13 regions in the Kingdom. The court yesterday held a third session to consider charges against 11 defendants who were alleged members of what was dubbed the Al-Khalediyah Cell consisting of 88 men, 72 of them Saudis.
Charges against members of this cell including making plans to storm a prison in Jeddah to release inmates detained on security-related charges, attempting to assassinate three senior government officials, resisting security forces, monitoring 52 Internet sites with the aim of carrying out terrorist operations and trying to poison a water tank in residential camps where a number of foreigners lived.
Trial of 29 terror suspects starts
