The Australian man who may decide the fate of two British nurses accused of murdering his sister in Saudi Arabia said yesterday that he had not heard of any verdict in their trial, despite reports that they had been found guilty.
"I have still not heard anything from Saudi Arabia regarding the case," Mr Frank Gilford (59) said in Jamestown, Australia after unconfirmed reports that a Saudi court had convicted Ms Deborah Parry (38) and Ms Lucille McLauchlan (31).
Mr Gilford's sister, Yvonne, was found murdered last December in her room at the King Fahd medical complex in the Saudi city of Dhahran. She had been stabbed 13 times, bludgeoned and suffocated.
Ms Parry and Ms McLauchlan say they are innocent and have withdrawn confessions they say were made under duress.
Australian newspapers at the weekend carried front-page reports that Ms Parry had been found guilty of intentional murder and sentenced to death, while Ms McLauchlan was convicted of being an accessory and given an undisclosed prison sentence.
But the two nurses' Saudi lawyer said the case had been passed to a higher court and no verdict had been issued. "The documents of the case were submitted to a higher court in Riyadh last Saturday (August 23rd) . . . (and) did not give a judgment of any kind," Mr Salah al-Hejailan said in Riyad on Saturday.
Mr Hejailan said the documents submitted dealt with the confessions and the Gilford family's insistence on the death penalty, and the higher court would now review the evidence and determine the credibility of the confessions.
Under Saudi law the victim's family - Mr Gilford and his 84-year-old mother, Muriel, who suffers Alzheimer's disease - can demand the death penalty if the court finds the women guilty and rules that capital punishment is appropriate.
The trial in Khobar was adjourned on August 10th for the three judges to deliberate and the British embassy has been expecting a verdict for two weeks.