Okaz/Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The Criminal Court in Riyadh, which is currently trying a ring of 32 suspects accused of spying for Iran, was told that the Iranian embassy in Riyadh was using its diplomatic immunity to recruit spies for Iran from the Kingdom. The accusation against the embassy was contained in a list of charges prepared by the attorney general against the suspects consisting of 30 Saudis, an Iranian and an Afghan national. The 25th defendant, an elderly Saudi, appeared before the court on Sunday on a wheelchair. He had fought along with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the first Gulf war against Iraq where he was shot and crippled. He was accused of a number of charges including liaising with the Iranian intelligence elements and carrying out a number of espionage activities under the orders of these elements. The defendant told the judge in the case that he could not prepare his written reply to the charges against him because he was not able to meet his lawyers. The judge gave him 45 days to submit his reply in writing. The 26th defendant also appeared before the court on Sunday. He was an Afghan national who was working in a popular restaurant near a residential camp of the National Guard forces in Riyadh. Through an interpreter appointed by the court, he told the judge that he could not prepare his reply because he did not have an interpreter as he only spoke Persian. He asked to be provided with a lawyer and an interpreter from his country's embassy in Riyadh and the judge immediately conveyed his request in a letter to the embassy. The judge fixed the next court session to try him after a month-and-a-half and asked him to submit his written reply by then. The three lawyers appointed by the defendants continued to be absent from the court since it started sessions early February. They made some demands which the judge rejected.
