Saudi court drops case over crane collapse that killed 111

Cairo: A Saudi court has dropped its case against 13 defendants who had been on trial over a crane collapse in Makkah in September 2015 that killed 111 pilgrims.

The Makkah Criminal Court said on Thursday it has no jurisdiction to rule on the case, which opened last August. Fourteen people had initially gone on trial, accused of negligence, damaging public property and ignoring safety guidelines. The court didn’t mention the discrepancy in the number of defendants.

Hundreds more were injured in the collapse, just days before the start of the annual Haj pilgrimage.

State-linked newspapers had said six Saudis, including a billionaire, two Pakistanis, a Canadian, a Jordanian, a Palestinian, an Egyptian, an Emirati and a Filipino had gone on trial. Their names were not made public.