SANAA, 9 July 2004 — Yemen has formally asked the United States to extradite a main suspect in the October 2000 bombing of the US Navy destroyer USS Cole off Yemen, official sources said yesterday.
Government officials said Yemeni Foreign Ministry has sent an official request to Washington demanding the handover of Abdul-Raheem Al-Nashri, who is believed to have masterminded the attack on the US ship as it was refueling at the southern Yemeni harbor of Aden.
The Defense Ministry’s magazine‚ “26 September”, quoting government sources, said, “Contacts are under way with US authorities to extradite the Yemeni citizen Abdul-Raheem Al-Nashri.”
A Yemeni counter-terrorism court on Wednesday charged Al-Nashri and five other suspects with the attack.
Prosecutors charged Al-Nashri, who is being tried in absentia, with ordering and funding the bombing of the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000.
The five alleged accomplices, who appeared before the court, were accused of having involved in the planning process.
The attack, carried out by two suicide bombers using a small boat laden with explosives, killed 17 American aboard the vessel and wounded 33 others.
Al-Nashri, also known as Mulla Bilal, was reportedly arrested in the United Arab Emirates in November 2002 and handed over to US authorities. He was described at the time as Al-Qaeda’s chief of operations in the Arab Gulf.
A Western diplomat told Arab News yesterday the extradition of Al-Nashri was unlikely since he is accused of involvement in other anti-US attacks.
“You could not expect he (Al-Nashri) would be handed over. He would rather be put on trial in the United States,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity. US officials believe that Al-Nashri has links to the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Among the defendants appeared before the Sanaa court on Wednesday, were three key suspects in the attack; Jamal Muhammad Al-Badawi, alias Abu Abdurrahman, 39, Fahd Muhammad Al-Qasaa, also known as Abu-Houdhifa, 30, and Maamoun Ahmad Onswa, alias Mutaz, 30. The two others are police officers Ali Muhammad Al-Muraqib, 30, and Murad Salih Al-Sorwri, 27. They were charged with providing the other suspects with forged ID documents.
The six men were accused of “forming an armed band to carry out terrorist acts, endangering state security and the society’s stability, and harming the country’s highest interests.”
