JIBLA, Yemen, 21 April 2003 — A young Yemeni suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda testified yesterday he killed three American doctors at a Southern Baptist missionary hospital in December because he believed they were trying to turn Yemeni Muslims into Christians.
“I acted out of a religious duty ... and in revenge from those who converted Muslims from their religion and made them unbelievers,” Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, 30, said as his trial opened under tight security in this southern Yemeni city.
“Yes, I killed them to take revenge on Christians and Americans. I am comfortable (with what I did),” Kamel said.
The prosecutor, Ibrahim Al-Delemi, asked for the maximum penalty.
A second hearing was set for April 30.
Kamel, who was arrested the day of the shooting, Dec. 30, said he coordinated the attack with Ali Al-Jarallah, another suspected extremist accused of shooting dead a Yemeni leftist politician two days before the hospital attack.
Al-Jarallah’s trial opened yesterday in Sanaa, the capital. The initial hearing lasted 15 minutes, with the judge reading the charges and Al-Jarallah, a member of Yemen’s Islamic Reform Party, asking that a lawyer be appointed. Al-Jarallah’s trial resumes on Wednesday.
Speaking calmly at his trial, Kamel said he and Al-Jarallah agreed Al-Jarallah would target secularist Yemenis while he would target Christians.
Neither Kamel nor the prosecutor mentioned Al-Qaeda, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, or its chief, Osama Bin Laden, yesterday. Bin Laden has family ties to Yemen and is believed to have strong support here.
Yemeni security officials said upon the arrest of Kamel that he might belong to a terrorist cell linked to Al-Qaeda. Police said Al-Jarallah might belong to the same cell. Audio tapes of Bin Laden were found at Kamel’s house.
After a year and half of planning, Kamel said he walked into the hospital building with a semi-automatic rifle hidden under his clothes and opened fire on a staff meeting. He said he fired two shots at each of his targets.
Al-Jarallah is accused of shooting dead Jarallah Omar, deputy secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party, and forming an armed gang to kill Christians, secular figures and journalists.
Al-Jarallah, handcuffed and caged, scoffed at the trial.
“This is an election campaign,” he said, referring to parliamentary polls due on April 27. He did not submit a plea.
The three Americans killed were Kathleen A. Gariety of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Martha C. Myers of Montgomery, Alabama, and William E. Koehn of Kansas.
Kamel testified he traveled to Jibla in July 2001 and began scouting his target — visiting the hospital often and asking questions about its activities.
“I found out that they were truly converting Muslims into Christians,” Kamel told the court.
Jibla residents, though, have said the Americans at the hospital never discussed religion. Yemeni law prohibits non-Muslims from proselytizing in this overwhelmingly Muslim country.
“This crazy madman had only silly excuses (for his act) and had no proof of what he said,” said Aref, a 26-year-old Jibla resident who was among those watching the trial yesterday. “Who gave him the right to be judge and executioner at once?” “We lost people who offered us many services,” added Aref, who gave only his first name.
Because of funding problems, the Southern Baptists’ Virginia-based International Missions Board transferred control of the hospital, founded in 1967 by Southern Baptists, in January to a local charity founded by Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Kerbi, a Canadian-trained doctor. The head of the hospital is now a Yemeni Health Ministry official.
Americans have been repeatedly warned to take care in Yemen .
In October 2000, a small-explosive-laden boat rammed into the USS Cole destroyer in the southern port of Aden. Seventeen US sailors were killed in that attack, which was blamed on Al-Qaeda. Ten major suspects in that attack escaped an intelligence prison in Aden on April 11. They remain at large.
