Britons face death penalty if guilty

Saudi Trial of British Nurses Adjourned

The hearing, in the eastern saudi town of Khobar, was adjourned after just twenty minutes on Sunday. The two accused women did not appear in court. British diplomats described the new delay in the trial as a technicality.

Deborah Parry and Lucille McLaughlan deny murdering their Australian colleague, Yvonne Gilford. Her body was found at the medical complex where all three women worked in the Saudi city of Dhahran. She had been stabbed 13 times, beaten and suffocated.

Yvonne Gilford was stabbed, beaten and suffocated

Several months have been taken up with wrangling over whether the brother of the murdered woman had the right to insist on the death penalty or exercise clemency if the two nurses are found guilty. That right has finally been established under Saudi law. The family of Yvonne Gilford have said they want the maximum sentence.

Court may decide on public beheading

Since the last hearing early in July, defence lawyers have submitted evidence which they believe undermines the prosecution case. Parry and McLaughlan have withdrawn confessions they made earlier, saying they had been physically and psychologically pressured into making them.

If the panel of the three Saudi judges decides there's doubt about the validity of the confessions, the case could be dismissed altogether. But if the judges accept the confessions at face value, it would be hard to avoid a verdict of guilty.

More than 70 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year.