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Saudi court puts 85 militants on trial Saudi Arabia starts the trial of 85 alleged members of Al-Qaeda linked cell, held responsible for the bombings of foreigners' compound in 2003, killing 20 people
Saudi Arabia has started to try 85 alleged members of an Al-Qaeda-linked cell which attacked three housing compounds for foreigners in the capital Riyadh in 2003, local newspapers reported on Monday. The attacks, which took place on a single night, killed 20 people according to Saudi Arabia's official news agency, and marked the start of a violent al Qaeda campaign that included plots against military bases, foreigners and industrial and energy facilities between 2003 to 2006. A spokesman from the Justice Ministry did not respond to calls or messages for comment about the trial. Saudi Arabia, the world's number one oil exporter, eventually ended the Al-Qaeda campaign after arresting thousands of people suspected of aiding militants, and enlisting senior Saudi clerics to denounce Osama bin Laden's network as un-Islamic. Those on trial are said to belong to the Dandani cell, named after Turki al-Dandani who was killed in a shoot-out with security forces in 2003, and are accused of killing and wounding 239 people in attacks on the compounds and other targets. Only the government's Human Rights Commission (HRC), which reports to King Abdullah and selected local media can attend the trials, HRC and independent human rights campaigners said. Human rights groups say 12,000 to 30,000 people, including political activists, were imprisoned during the kingdom's crackdown on militants. In August Saudi authorities put 16 men on trial for "funding terrorism" and conspiring with Al-Qaeda to seize power, but rights campaigners say the men were arrested for political activism. A special criminal court also put on trial this month seven Saudis accused of creating an Al-Qaeda-linked "terrorist cell" and setting up a training camp on the mountains near the country's southern border with Yemen. Last month 41 suspects accused of forming an Al-Qaeda-linked cell which aimed to attack US forces based in neighbouring Kuwait and Qatar were also put on trial. The verdicts have not yet been announced. "All these trials should be completely transparent, with full access to the public, because the regulations in Saudi Arabia stipulate that these hearings are supposed to be public," the president of the kingdom's Human Rights First Society, Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, told Reuters. "In the absence of that, doubt is always allowed to prevail on the circumstances of the interrogation and the trial itself," he said.
