Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The Criminal Court in Makkah will hold its first session tomorrow (Thursday) to resume the trial of 13 defendants accused of causing the fall of the giant crane over the walls of the Grand Mosque in September 2015. The Court of Appeals has rejected a preliminary verdict issued by the court which has dismissed the case on the ground that such lawsuits do not fall under its jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals objected to the ruling and decided to send the case back again to the Criminal Court in the holy city. According to court sources, all the defendants were asked to attend the session to hear them so as to complete the observations of the Court of Appeals prior to issuing its final verdict. After eight months of thorough interrogations, the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) has submitted the case to the Criminal Court in Makkah to consider the charges and to punish the accused. The investigations were done by the BIP offices in Jeddah, Makkah and Riyadh which questioned a number of engineers, technicians and workers of the Binladen Group which was in charge of operating the German-made crane. Investigations also covered those working in the expansion project of the Grand Mosque.
