DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz announced Monday that the files of 991 suspects involved in terrorist attacks in the Kingdom have been referred to Sharia courts, local press reported Tuesday.
Prince Abdul Aziz said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been exposed to an organized terrorist campaign, directly linked to al-Qaeda, over the past five years.
The top official announced that more than 160 terrorist attacks have been foiled over the past few years, during which 74 Saudi security officials were killed and 657 others injured. He added that tens of thousands of explosives and arms were confiscated.
" For justice to be done, it has to be fair, and to be seen as fair " Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch "Terrorist attacks on the Kingdom over the past five years have killed 90 civilians and wounded 439 others," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted Aziz as saying.
He said that six judges would preside over trials in the capital Riyadh and the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. The first trial of al-Qaeda suspects in the Kingdom kicked off in a Riyadh court on Monday as a primary step, Saudi newspapers reported.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was seeking permission
from the Saudi authorities to send observers to the trials, saying that
justice must be seen to be done.
“For justice to be done, it has to be fair, and to be seen as fair,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Neutral observers should monitor trials of such national and international importance.” |
Militants facing trial included two groups: those directly involved in the attacks and those who helped the accused by providing refuge, transport and funds, said the interior minister, Prince Naif Abdul Aziz.
Saudi Arabia has been hit by more than five years of Islamist violence in a string of attacks against Western targets and oil infrastructure.
Last June, the Saudi interior ministry announced the arrests of hundreds of suspected Islamist sympathizers for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks. Some of the detainees, according to Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, the ministry’s spokesman, were planning to stage terrorist attacks on oil fields and other vital installations.
Suspects are being detained in al-Haer prison west of Riyadh and they would be transferred to courts under tightened security measures according to the trial schedules to be decided by the judges, SPA said.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia although he has since been stripped of his nationality. Fifteen of the 19 plotters of the September 2001 attacks in the United States were Saudis.
(Translation from Arabic by Abeer Tayel) |
