Manama: Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor demanded the death penalty for two terrorists who plotted to blow up a mosque in Qatif in the Eastern Province.
The pair, a Saudi and a Yemeni, had been instructed by the Daesh terror group to cause the explosion, the court heard as the trial opened in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The two men were tasked with leading a Pakistani national who had been designated to blow himself up in Al Mustafa Mosque in the town of Um Al Hamam.
The scheme failed after the police in the area became suspicious and fired at the Pakistani, killing him before he had time to detonate his four-kilo explosives belt.
The Saudi man faced charges of belonging to, and operating for, the Daesh terror group, communicating with its members in Syria, participating in their terror schemes in Saudi Arabia, carrying an explosives belt from Riyadh to the Eastern Province to target a mosque and accompanying the would-be suicide bomber.
He was also charged with illegal financial operations and traveling to Syria to join terror groups.
The Yemeni suspect was charged with embracing a terrorist ideology, membership of the Daesh group, working on its behalf in Saudi Arabia, contacts with Daesh members in Syria, assisting with the terror attack by selecting a Shiite mosque to blow up and monitoring movements around the mosque to inform his Daesh contacts who commissioned the attack.
Saudi Arabia has had to deal with terrorists who attacked or planned to target mosques, mainly in the Eastern Province, but also in other regions of the vast country.
In January, it put on trial of a woman who helped her husband carry the explosives belt used in a deadly attack on a mosque on August 6, 2015.
The woman concealed the belt under her feet as her husband drove more than 1,000km from Riyadh to Aseer province in southwestern Saudi Arabia.
The attack on the mosque inside the Special Forces headquarters in Abha during the duhr (noon) prayers killed five soldiers, six military trainees and four Bangladeshi workers.
In an address at the start of Ramadan on May 17, King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz said that Saudi Arabia remained fully committed to fighting extremism and terrorism.
“When terrorism spread out across the world, the kingdom continued to use all its means, political weight and international prestige to combat extremism and terrorism, and to emphasise in all international forums that they are not part of any religion or culture,” he said.
