The special summary court in Jeddah held a hearing to try a Saudi academic accused of agitating public opinion against the ruler, spreading sedition and undermining national unity.
According to court sources, the academic asked to be given a week to present his response to the list of charges compiled against him by the attorney general.
They said the defendant denied his early handwritten confessions that had been officially documented, claiming they were obtained under duress by the judge who allowed a police officer to attend the questioning.
The judge did not accept his plea and told him he could have asked the investigating judge to ask the police officer to leave the room. “If you ask me now to clear the courtroom, I would gladly do that for you,” the judge told the defendant.
The defendant also asked to be given a computer to type his response to the charges but the judge told him he could deliver his answers handwritten and the court would then type them out for him.
The judge tried to convince the defendant to speed up the delivery of his response in consultation with his lawyer, but the academic insisted that he be given a week.
He also claimed the court was not authorized to watch the video clips that were used as evidence against him, but the judge advised him otherwise.