Saudi names ten new suspects in Makkah crane crash

Ten new suspects, who are employees and supervisors in some government departments, have been added to the list of 40 people accused of involvement in the crane crash in the Grand Mosque last September which killed and injured many pilgrims and visitors.

Quoting an informed source, Makkah Arabic daily reported on Wednesday that the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) in Makkah returned the case file to the BIP main office in Riyadh earlier this week attaching to it the names of the 10 new suspects.

The source said the Riyadh office had sent back to the BIP office in Makkah the file about two weeks ago to complete some papers, confirm the identities of some suspects and revise the data prior to referring it to court.

The file already contained the names of 40 indicted engineers, supervisors and technicians who are employees of Binladen Group, the construction company which was carrying out the Grand Mosque expansion projects.

The operator of the giant crane was also called for questioning under the request of the Riyadh BIP office.

The source said the investigations conducted by the Makkah BIP office resulted in adding 10 new suspects from some government departments which are supervising the expansion projects of the Grand Mosque.

Meanwhile, the last segments of the base on which the crane was erected were removed on Tuesday providing more space in the plazas for worshippers. The damages caused by the crash have already been fixed and the crane was removed to another site away from the Grand Mosque.

This article was first published by the Saudi Gazette on February 11, 2016.