The Appeal National Safety Court heard five cases related to the murder of policemen Kashif Ahmed Mandour and Mohammed Farouq Abdul Samad, in which the Lower National Safety Court sentenced four defendants to death and three others to life imprisonment.
During the session, the defendants’ lawyers presented pleadings and requested the court to give them extra time to meet their clients and deliver detailed presentation.
On the other hand, the military prosecution demanded approving the verdicts issued by the Lower National Safety Court.
After that, the court adjourned the case to next Wednesday and allowed the appellants to meet their families.
In another context, ten persons accused of kidnapping a police officer today stood trial at the Lower National Safety Court.
During the session, the military prosecution presented its pleading in which it showed how hideous the crime was, adding that it was in line with the marches whose organisers claimed they were pacifist ones and then revealed their true heinous nature and became terrorist acts that terrorized safe and secure people.
The military prosecutor added that attacking a policeman while on duty in such an odious ways contravenes with values of Islamic which safeguards human beings’ right to be free and secure, asserting that the defendants have violated all human principles, which reflects their criminal intentions and cruelty.
The military prosecutor also presented details of the crime, including the confessions of nine suspects and the reports of both the forensic medicine and the Military Hospital, demanding the court to inflict severe punishment on the suspects.
The members of the defence team presented their pleadings in which they denied the information mentioned by witnesses regarding the way the incident happened, asserting that the suspects are innocent.
Concerning the 10th suspect, his defence insisted that his client is innocent since he said from the beginning that he was not involved in the crime, and, therefore, requested the court to acquit him.
The suspects will stand trial next Thursday when the court will issue verdicts.
Present were Alice Sama’an and Tariq Al Saffar from the National Human Rights Organisation, Salman Nasser from the Gulf European Center for Human Rights, the defendants and their relatives.
The National Safety Courts were set up according to the Royal Decree on the declaration of the State of National Safety, which determined the nature of each one and ruled that each of them should consist of two civil judges and a military one in order to ensure the fairness of the judicial system in the kingdom and safeguards the suspects’ right for fair trials and allowed them to appeal the verdicts.