Saudi Arabia: Islamic militants tried without lawyers

RYAD-Islamist militants tried in Saudi Arabia as part of security courts of the State are entitled to a lawyer, said Sunday the leader of the official commission of human rights.

•     According to Mr. Bandar El-Aiban, its chairman, the committee follows the trials opened earlier this year, and defenders of human rights criticized the secrecy. They were also worried that the defendants had no lawyer to defend them.
  
      “They may choose a lawyer or the Department of Justice will provide them,” said Aiban to the press.
  
      He however regretted the confidentiality of the trial. “I prefer public trials, this shows that the system works,” he said.
  
      “But we must be attentive to other risks,” he added, noting that the government feared that public trials are used by the defendants to preach violence.
  
      Nearly 1,000 people were arrested for their alleged involvement in attacks that have bloodied Arabia, particularly in the years 2003-2006.
  
      In May, Saudi human rights militants had denounced the secrecy of the courts in a petition to King Abdullah and called for “fair and public” trials.
  
      According to the petition, the government has begun trials of 991 suspected militants arrested during the wave of violence that has overshadowed Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2005, claimed by Al Qaeda and has caused more than 100 deaths among the Saudis and foreigners.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.