SANAA, 12 April 2003 — Ten Yemenis awaiting trial over the deadly October 2000 attack on the USS Cole destroyer escaped from a jail yesterday in the southern port of Aden, local authorities said.
The men cut open the bars over one of the prison windows and slipped out around 5:00 a.m. (0200 GMT). Jailers realized one hour later that they were gone, said the officials, who requested anonymity.
Among those who escaped was Jamal Badawi, one of the principal suspects held over the attack, which killed 17 US sailors and was claimed by Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Local officials said seven other suspects in the Cole case remained in prison. Police who inspected the facility after the escape found no trace of the fugitives. Authorities announced a manhunt for the suspects, distributing their pictures to police stations around the Aden area.
Yemeni police have finished their investigation of the 17 men, carried out in collaboration with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and have sent their case to prosecutors.
But the suspects, who could potentially face the death penalty, have not been formally charged. Yemeni officials say the United States wanted to delay the trial until prosecution of other key Al-Qaeda figures.
Seventeen US sailors were killed and 38 others wounded in the Oct. 12, 2000 suicide attack, in which men rammed an explosives-laden boat into the hull of the destroyer in Aden.
Yemen’s government rounded up more than 100 suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, although dozens have since been released for lack of evidence. At the request of Washington, Yemeni police and armed forces began in late 2001 tracking down suspected Al-Qaeda members in the unruly provinces.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh has deployed troops mainly around suspected Al-Qaeda strongholds in the country’s northeast, while the US military has been sent to assist in the training of the Yemeni Army.
