A group of 32 people accused of spying for Iran’s regime will appear before Saudi Arabia’s Criminal Court in Riyadh on Monday, the Saudi Gazette reported.
“The spies include 30 Saudis, an Iranian and an Afghan citizen,” the Saudi Gazette wrote. Makkah Arabic daily said on Sunday that the spies will appear before the court in groups of two each time.
The court recessed its first session on February 23 after giving each of the defendants a paper containing their charges.
The judge in the case asked them to prepare their replies to the second round of the sessions beginning on Monday. He also asked them to assign lawyers or ask the court to do this for them.
They are accused of high treason, liaising with Iranian intelligence elements, meeting with some of them in Iran and Lebanon, meeting with the Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and passing over to Iran’s regime classified military and civil data about Saudi Arabia.
“The spies were also accused of maintaining contacts with a number of Iranian officials and diplomats at the embassy in Riyadh, the consulate in Jeddah and the Iranian mission to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),” Saudi Gazette wrote.
They were arrested in between March and May 2013.