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Saudi Arabia: Makkah Court acquits 13 defendants in Grand Mosque crane collapse

Dubai - The crane collapse occurred on September 11, 2015, killing 108 people and injuring 238 others.

The Makkah Criminal Court on Wednesday issued a new ruling acquitting 13 defendants in the Grand Mosque Crane collapse case, including Saudi Binladin Group, Saudi media such as Okaz/Saudi Gazette reported.

In the new verdict, the court said it had found nothing new than what it had earlier ruled in the case.

It said it would send a copy of the verdict to the Court of Appeal to decide on the issue.

In an earlier verdict delivered on October 1, 2017, the Makkah Criminal Court had acquitted all the 13 defendants who were charged with negligence.

The court had said that the defendants are not criminally responsible for the incident in which 108 people lost their lives and another 238 were injured when a crane involved in the Grand Mosque expansion project collapsed on September 11, 2015.

The disaster was caused by heavy rains and thunderstorms, rather than human error or fault, the court had said in its previous judgement.

“The crane was in an upright, correct and safe position. There was no error committed by the accused, who had taken all the necessary safety precautions,” the court declared in its decision. The Attorney General challenged the decision and appealed against it.

In December 2017, however, the Appeals Court upheld the previous ruling of the Criminal Court. The Appeals Court said that the crane, though placed in a safe position, toppled due to a severe thunderstorm and violent winds. The court also directed the Criminal Court to re-examine the case.

The court issued the new verdict on Wednesday after re-examining the entire aspects of the crane crash.

As per the latest Saudi media reports, the court noted that the General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection had issued a bulletin on weather conditions on the day of the accident and the day before it. The warning showed that the wind speed in the Red Sea ranged between one and 38 kilometres per hour only, and did not include warning of the weather conditions with a possibility of hurricanes.

The court noted that there was no mention in the lawsuit about the warning of the General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection that this disaster would occur. The court also indicated that what happened in Makkah that day could be attached to a celestial phenomenon that was difficult to predict. As such, the defendants cannot be held culpable or the tragedy.

The Court of Appeal had stressed, in its earlier ruling, the need to clarify, define and know precisely the tasks of the safety division of the Haram expansion project. This is because the company which was implementing the project had an integrated department for monitoring weather fluctuations, which means that it was fully responsible for detecting and forecasting weather conditions and did not need to wait for meteorological reports.

The Court of Appeal also drew attention to the response of an official among the defendants that he was not informed of the outbreak of the storm on the day of the crane tragedy, as it occurred on Friday during which he was on leave. The appeals court’s remarks emphasised that none of the accused officials indicated that there was a special meteorology unit associated with the project.

The court also noted the dereliction of duty on the part of the Environmental Department affiliated to the Department of Safety and its role in collecting reports on weather conditions and preparing daily reports. The court also directed a first-grade court to examine this aspect of the incident.