Saudi court postpones considering the case of three reformers

A Saudi court has postponed the trial of three reformers until its next session on April 23, after the attorney general asked for more time to provide additional evidence against the men.

The attorney general submitted his request in a close-door session by the court on Sunday from which journalists were banned to attend. The audience was limited to relatives of some of the accused men, according to the representatives of the Saudi national society for human rights in the session, Saleh al-Khathlan.

The trial of the three Saudi reformers Ali al-Dumeini, Abdullah al-Hamad and Matrouk al-Faleh, who were detained since more than a year, was postponed twice at a similar request from the attorney general.

Al-Khathlan who was talking outside of the court's hall considered that there was no need for a 20-day grace period, noting that all information already existed, especially that the accused men have been held for more than one year.

Continuously, the accused men refused to answer accusations addressed to them and demanded an open trial. However, al-Dumeini decided on Sunday to give 25- page defending himself, according to one of his relatives who was permitted to attend the trial.

The three men were among a group of 12 activists arrested on March 16, 2004. Later, six of them were released after they vowed to abstain from launching open calls for reforms, while other three were released one week earlier.

Worthy mentioning that all those accused men were among 116 persons who submitted a petition in December 2003 to senior Saudi officials in which they called for a comprehensive constitutional reform guaranteeing people's participation through an elected parliament recognizing the political, cultural, economic and social rights of citizens.