Mansour Al-Shahri Okaz/Saudi Gazette RIYADH – A special criminal court in Riyadh on Sunday sentenced to death a terrorist, who survived in the attack on the US consulate in Jeddah nine years ago. The court awarded jail terms, ranging from one and a half years to 23 years to other 19 convicts, in addition to a travel ban.
Five terrorists attacked the consulate on Dec. 6, 2004, with explosives and machineguns, killing four security guards and five staff members. Security forces killed four of the attackers while the fifth one was arrested with injuries. The attackers had entered the compound in a consulate vehicle after lobbing explosives at the gate. The court issued verdicts against 20 accused who belonged to a 55-member terror cell. The court gave the death penalty to the terrorist, who is the sixth defendant. When the judge asked him what he felt about carrying out the attack on the consulate, the accused replied that he committed it in support of the Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the judge pronounced the judgment, the convict asked whether the verdict was from Allah, to which the judge read out the Qur'anic verse related to the death penalty for those who create sedition on earth. The charges against the convict include plotting and attacking the consulate together with other militants who were killed in a subsequent shootout with the security forces, taking hostage the consulate staff and visa applicants and robbing their valuables besides making them human shields.
