Whose Terrorism is It Anyway? (Terrorism Trials‪)‬

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been continuing this year with a series of "terror trials" in which those suspected of being terrorists are tried by a special court in the western city of Jeddah. The trials of 85 suspects are currently underway. So far 34 are facing death sentences, according to a report in the pan-Arab daily AL HAYAT on July 4. International media and human rights observers are not allowed to attend the trials, according to a statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a non-governmental organization, published on July 14. Only local media are allowed to report on the proceedings, which means the Saudi-owned pan-Arab dailies AL HAYAT and ASHARQ AL AWSAT, along with the Saudi-owned satellite television channel AL ARABIYA, more or less have a monopoly of the coverage of these trials. Consequently many of the details concerning these "terror suspects" and their "crimes" remain very unclear. Since 2003 Saudi Arabia has detained indefinitely without charge some 9,000 people as part of its counter-terrorism program. Only in October 2008 did it move to begin trying some of these detainees, promising that trials would be fair and monitored by human rights experts. In July 2009 the kingdom announced that it had convicted 329 suspects on terrorism charges, following secret trials without legal representation, according to a report by HRW published in August 2009. In October 2008 the NGO had made a written request to the kingdom to issue visas to two of its experts so that they could attend the trials. The request was refused, and two local rights organizations were also prevented from monitoring the proceedings.