A special criminal court in Riyadh on Tuesday started a trial of 84 Saudis as well as a Jordanian and a Somali for their alleged involvement in a number of terrorist acts including a 2004 attack in Alkhobar.
At the beginning of the court sitting, the prosecutor general read the charges against Defendant No. 1 who was allegedly the mastermind of several terror attacks. After this, the judge told the defendant that he has the right to appoint a lawyer to defend him, and that the Justice Ministry would appoint lawyers if he was unable to meet the financial expense for this. The defendant replied that he would appoint lawyers for himself as well as for his father.
He denied charges leveled against him by the prosecutor general. The defendant stated that he had no association with Al-Qaeda and their criminal acts. He was arrested while allegedly taking foreigners hostage after storming into the Oasis Compound on May 29, 2004. Several foreign nationals, including Westerners and Saudi citizens, were killed in the terrorist attacks on three Western targets, including the Oasis in Alkhobar. Terrorists also held around 50 people hostage in the offices and residences of foreign oil company employees.
The list of charges against the defendant included joining Al-Qaeda and getting involved in a number of terror acts, disobeying Saudi leaders and pledging allegiance to the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin, joining a terrorist cell that was tasked to keep surveillance and assassinate royal family members as well as government officials and security men, and planning and carrying out the attack on Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation Building (Apicorp Compound), Alkhobar Petroleum Centre and Oasis Compound as per the directive of Al-Muqrin.
He was also accused of taking part in the killing of three Saudi security men, as well as in the killing of over a dozen foreigners, firing and injuring 11 Saudis and foreigners, and participating in the armed robbery of a car.
The defendant was also charged with storming into Riyadh’s Al-Mohaya housing compound and carrying out terror attack together with other terrorists and taking part in the bomb attack on the traffic general department building at Riyadh’s Public Security Directorate and killing and wounding a number of security officials and destroying the building.
He was accused of killing six security men and the father of a terrorist after storming a house together with seven other terrorists following an operation by security forces to apprehend a terrorist, taking part in readying five vehicles laden with seven tons of explosives to carry out terror attacks, and surveying the route of a gas trailer with the aim of robbing it at gun point in order to use it for terror attacks in the Diplomatic Quarter.
Other charges against Defendant No. 1 include attempting to assassinate a prominent Saudi figure by poisoning the air-conditioning system at his office, associating with Al-Muqrin in their bid to explode warships off the coast of Jazan as well as military sites in Taif, taking part in the transportation and possession of missiles with the ulterior motive of undermining the Kingdom’s stability and transporting one ton of explosives from Riyadh to Makkah to hand over to Miteb Al-Mehyani to carry out terror attacks.
He was also accused of taking delivery of two tons of explosives from Qassim province and transporting it to a rest house, transporting 700 kilograms of explosives from a rest house in Sulai to the house of a terrorist in Riyadh with the purpose of readying a booby trapped GMC vehicle, taking part in financing terror acts in association with terrorists Al-Muqrin and Faisal Al-Dhakhil, buying several vehicles to use them for terror attacks, leasing buildings for sheltering terrorists, taking part in military training programs held at houses and open camps, in addition to an attempt to escape from prison.
The defendant was also accused of possessing several weapons, including seven pipe bombs, two hand grenades, 323 AK 47 bullets, a Polish made AK 47 machine gun, revolver, and 28 glass bombs.
The court also continued trying 66 Saudis and a Jordanian accused of joining a terrorist cell in the Kingdom under the leadership of Fahd Al-Juwair. The hearing of four defendants (Defendant Nos. 13, 14, 15 and 17) was held on Tuesday. A total of 12 defendants had appeared before the court during the hearing on Sunday and Monday.
Trial of terror mastermind begins in Riyadh
