It’s approaching five years since a group of Saudis attacked a party of French tourists, killing the four males in the party and threatening the women. The accused are now in court facing charges that, if proved, will surely result in the death penalty. The ironic part of the story is that those they killed in the name of extremist Islam were themselves Muslims. The group is accused not only of murder, but also a variety of terrorist charges, from supporting Al-Qaeda to promoting takfiri ideology.
14 accused in French tourists’ murder stand trial in Riyadh
MUHAMMAD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: A special criminal court in Riyadh began the trial of 14 suspects accused of murdering four French tourists and threatening their women.
They are also accused of supporting Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and carrying out a number of other crimes.
The trial, which was attended by a French consul and two relatives of the victims, saw the public prosecutor reading out the charges against the 14 defendants.
The first three defendants were accused of being directly involved in the murder that took place in a desert area about 90 km north of Madinah in 2007. The remaining 11 are accused of setting up a terror cell and providing support to the murderers.
During the session, the prosecutor explained the various roles played by the defendants in the crime. They are also accused of opening fire against security officers, seizing cars of citizens at gunpoint and taking money from the ATMs of Saudi-American and Saudi-British banks and possessing weapons and explosives.
…
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
December:30:2011 - 12:17
“…murdering four French tourists and threatening *their* women”
It looks like when on Saudi soil, “women” requires a possessive pronoun. Apparently they aren’t considered to be tourists themselves.
December:30:2011 - 12:46
@Dakota: I caught that, shook my head, rolled my eyes, and focused on the trial.