Attorney General, Abdulrahman Al-Sayyad, said that the Cassation Court issued verdicts in the appeals submitted by convicts of the “terror plot” case, accepting the appeals in form and upholding the previous rulings.
He added that charges against the defendants have been confirmed as they used all appeal means available, explaining that the convicts and their lawyers have been given full opportunities to present their defence which has been discussed thoroughly and justified by the court in all litigation phases.
The convicts stood trial over charges of establishing and joining an illegal group aiming to overthrow the political system using force and terrorist means, exchanging intelligence information with a foreign country for the sake of staging hostile actions in the Kingdom, attempting to change the country’s constitution and its monarchy by force, calling for the change of the political system by force, insulting the army openly, inciting hatred against a special social group and organizing and taking part in illegal protests.
The lower National Safety Court issued prison sentences ranging from two to fifteen years and life imprisonment and confiscated all seizures.
The lawyers appealed the verdicts at the Appeals National Safety Court which rejected the appeals and upheld the rulings.
Then, fourteen suspects appealed the rulings at the Cassation Court which overturned, in its session on April 30th, 2012, the appealed verdicts and referred the case to the High Court of Appeals.
During the court session, the defendants attended and their lawyers delivered their defence statements. On September 4th, 2012, the same court acquitted a number of the suspects regarding some charges.
After that, the lawyers of 13 defendants appealed the verdicts at the Court of Cassation, which issued its final verdicts on Monday January 7th, accepting the appeals in form and upholding the appealed rulings.