A three-judge special judicial committee ordered that...

A three-judge special judicial committee ordered that four suspects arrested in connection with a series of robberies targeting the Saudi French Bank and Al-Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation be put to death. The committee revealed that the death penalty was ordered due to special circumstances surrounding other criminal acts committed by the group. The group, consisting of three Saudis and a South Asian man, was wanted in connection with drug trafficking, prostitution and blackmail. The suspects were arrested shortly after committing their last two robberies at a Bawadi District bank and the Hail Street branch of Al-Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation. The Hail Street robbery took place in October 2003, when two of the four suspects approached a security guard outside the branch while wielding machine guns.
They beat him up until he opened the door for them. Once inside, they locked themselves in and began looking for cash. As employees of the bank began to arrive, the robbers made their escape through an emergency side door.
That was the second robbery in which Al-Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation was targeted. Two years prior to that in Makkah, SR 87,000 had been taken. In late 2002, the Saudi French Bank branch in north Jeddah was robbed by the same group of people, as was another bank in the south of Jeddah.