SANAA, 13 November 2006 — A Yemeni appeal court yesterday confirmed jail sentences from five to 20 years on six tribesmen convicted of kidnapping five Italian tourists in northern Yemen last January.

A state security court initially convicted the six men on March 29 of taking the five Italian tourists hostage in Marib province, some 195 km northeast of Sanaa.

Ali Saleh Ubad Al-Zaidi, 24, Ubad Saleh Al-Zaidi, 21, Naji Mahdi Al-Zaidi, 20, and Muhammad Saleh Al-Zaidi, 30, received a 20-year jail term each.

Muryee Ali Ahmad Al-Ameri, 35, got a 10 years in prison. The court sentenced the sixth convict, Hadi Muhammad Ali Al-Ameri, 24, to five years in prison.

When the trial began on Jan. 18, chief prosecutor Saeed Al-Aaqil accused the men of “taking part in forming an armed gang to kidnap foreigners.”

The six men confessed to the kidnapping but pleaded not guilty on the charge of forming an armed gang.

The tribesmen freed the five Italian captives, three women and two men, on Jan. 6 after holding them hostage for five days in a mountainous village in Marib.

The kidnappers were demanding the release of eight clan members being held in Sanaa in connection with the killing of a police officer in the city in 2003.

Prosecutors have asked the court to use a counter-kidnapping law issued in 1998 inflicting harsh punishments of long jail terms or death sentences for convicted kidnappers.

The abduction of the Italians came one day after five German hostages were freed from captivity in the eastern province of Shabwa.

Armed tribesmen from impoverished areas often take hostages and use them as bargaining chips with the government to press for aid, jobs or the release of detained fellow clansmen.

In 1999, Yemen set up special courts to handle cases involving the abduction of foreigners.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Yemen since 1991. Almost all of them were released unharmed through mediation involving tribal leaders.

However, in 1998 a militant group kidnapped 16 Western tourists, four of whom died in a botched rescue attempt by police. In 2000 a Norwegian diplomat was killed in a similar rescue attempt.