Saudi begins trial over militant killing of four French

Saudi Arabia started the trial of 14 suspected Islamic militants accused of killing four French nationals in the conservative kingdom in 2007, state media said on Wednesday. The trial is being held in a special criminal court in the Saudi capital Riyadh that was set up as part of the kingdom's campaign against militants linked to al Qaeda who killed dozens of people between 2003 and 2006.
The official Saudi Press Agency said in a report on the trial, which was not open to media, that the defendants were also accused of being part of an al Qaeda cell. Saudi Arabia's prosecutor general said four of the men, led by Walid al-Radadi, had carried out the gun attack on a group of nine French nationals who were touring the desert in the west of the country near the Muslim holy city of Medina.