JEDDAH — The criminal court which is trying 14 defendants for responsibility in the Makkah crane crash of September 2015 has turned down a plea from their lawyers to prevent newspapers from publishing reports about the case. The court, which has shifted to its new headquarters in Makkah, will resume hearings in the case in two weeks. Court sources said presiding judge Abdulaziz Hamoud Al-Tuairqi told the lawyers that it was not within his power to prevent the media from publishing news about the accident. "It is not within the jurisdiction of the court to look at your request," the judge told the lawyers. He gave the lawyers 15 days to contest his decision in the Court of Appeals. The judge told the lawyers that their request to ban publishing news about developments in the case was not convincing and that it was not within the powers of his court. The court will in the next two weeks consider the list of charges against the defendants and their replies to them before proceeding to look at the case in its entirety. A giant tower crane crashed on the Grand Mosque in Makkah on Sept. 11, 2015, amid a violent storm, killing 110 people and injuring 260 others, some of them with crippling injuries. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, who quickly ordered an investigation into the accident, instructed that the families of every dead victim be paid SR1 million and each of the injured SR500,000. The judge said the compensation ordered by the King does not constitute diyyah (blood money), which the families of the victims could demand through private suits once the criminal court issues its verdict after the trial.
