SANAA, 26 December 2004 — A key defendant in the trial of 15 militants convicted of terror attacks in Yemen told the court yesterday he had maintained ties with Osama Bin Laden.
“I would never nullify a pledge I gave to Bin Laden,” Fawaz Al-Rabyee, 27, said in his final pleas before a Sanaa court of appeals.
Al-Rabyee, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a first instance court on Aug. 28, said he had agreed with Bin Laden to target the United States, not any other country.
“He (Bin Laden) asked me if we wanted to cut down a tree, should we hit it in different points? I replied: No, we should concentrate our hits on one point till the tree falls down,” he said, in a clear reference to the United States.
He also told the court that one of the defendants standing trial with him, Fawzi Al-Hababi, was a bodyguard of Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Al-Rabyee and 14 other militants were convicted by the first instance court over a string of bombing attacks against buildings of the Political Security Organization and homes of three top intelligence officials in 2003. No one was hurt in the attacks.
They were also found guilty of planning suicide bomb attacks on embassies of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Cuba, and plotting to assassinate former US Ambassador Edmund J. Hull. The attacks never happened.
The chief judge of the appeal court, Saeed Naji Al-Qattaa, said the court would announce the verdicts on Feb. 5.
