Saudi Gazette RIYADH — Thirteen Iranians are under detention on charges of terrorism in the Kingdom, according to security sources. The sources said nine Iranians were arrested during the past 10 days from a number of locations across the Kingdom. They were part of two groups: The first one consisting of seven suspected terrorists and the second comprised two. The sources said the Iranians did not resist the arrest nor did they make any attempt to escape. Four Iranians were already in prisons facing similar charges. One of them was caught with the cell of 32 spies for Iran between March and May, 2013. In addition to him, the cell included an Afghan national and 30 Saudis. The cell members are being tried before a criminal court in Riyadh which reconvened on Sunday after a three-day recess. The court recessed its first session on Feb. 23 after giving each of the defendants a paper containing the charges against him. The judge in the case asked them to prepare their replies to the second round of the sessions. He also asked them to assign lawyers or ask the court to do this for them. According to court sources, the attorney general asked for capital punishment for 25 of them. They were accused of high treason, liaising with Iranian intelligence elements, meeting with some of them in Iran and Lebanon, meeting with Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei and passing over to Iran classified military and civil data about the Kingdom. The spies were also accused of maintaining contacts with a number of Iranian officials and diplomats at the embassy in Riyadh, the consulate in Jeddah and the Iranian mission to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The court sources revealed that a Saudi defendant is a nuclear physicist, another an owner of a local Haj company, a third a soldier at the Haj military forces, the fourth an educationist with long years of experience while others are bankers, government officials and businessmen.
