RIYADH — No one will ever pressure the court or make it bow down, the judge of the Criminal Court trying 32 defendants accused of spying for Iran has said. The judge was responding to requests made by the lawyers through the defendants or their relatives that they be given nearby parking lots, not to be bodily searched and to enter the court room with their mobile phones. The three lawyers have been repeating these demands since the court started sessions early February and every time the judge in the case would disregard them. He told the lawyers that the answer to their requests was not within his authority and asked them to address the president of the court. "Under the court rules and regulations, the lawyers can do their job with complete freedom when they arrive at the court room. No body can impose any terms or conditions on the court," the judge said. The court held its ninth session on Monday to listen to the replies of two defendants to the charges tabled against them by the attorney general. The defendants No. 17 (an Afghan) and No. 18 (a Saudi) told the court that they could not prepare their replies because they could not meet with their lawyers. According to court sources, this pretext has been used by 18 suspects who have so far appeared before the court. The judge refused to accept the excuses and gave them about 45 days to submit their written replies. They were all accused of spying for Iran, meeting with Iranian intelligence elements, supplying Iran with classified data about the Kingdom and many other charges. The attorney general has asked for capital punishment for 25 of them. The Afghan defendant, who does not speak good Arabic, told the judge that he could not meet with his interpreter and the judge wrote a letter to the prison to allow the interpreter to meet with him. The court sources said the Afghan national was a member of the Afghan Revolutionary Guard who was planted by Iran to teach cooking of Bukhari rice at a popular restaurant near a residential compound of the Saudi National Guard in Riyadh. The Iranian intelligence elements asked the Afghan to supply them with the names of the officers living in the compound. The defendant No. 18, a Saudi involved in the Haj services, was asked by the Iranians to supply them with data about the Shiites in Madinah including their numbers and positions. He was also asked to provide them with the accommodation places of the princes during the Haj and the routes they take to reach the Jamrat area in Mina.
