SANAA, 6 February 2005 — A Yemeni court yesterday upheld the convictions of 15 Islamic militants for a series of terror attacks, including the October 2002 bombing of a French supertanker, and sentenced the group’s leader Fawaz Al-Rabyee to death.
The appeals court confirmed the death sentence handed down last August to Hizam Saleh Megalli and condemned to death Al-Rabyee, who was initially given a 10-year prison sentence. The two men were found guilty of plotting terrorist acts and killing a policeman.
Al-Rabyee was also convicted of masterminding bombings near buildings of the intelligence services and homes of three top intelligence officials in 2003.
The verdict was read out amid an intense security clampdown with armored vehicles blocking surrounding streets and anti-terror troops deployed in adjacent buildings.
Al-Rabyee had told the appeals court that he had maintained contact with Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and had agreed to concentrate on US targets.
“I would never nullify a pledge I gave to the imam of mujahedin (or holy warriors) Sheikh Osama Bin Laden,” Al-Rabyee said in his final pleas before a Sanaa court of appeals on Dec. 5.
“Sheikh Osama 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.
The 15 men, all in their twenties, were found guilty of attacking the French tanker Limburg as it prepared to enter Al-Shir port off Yemen’s southeastern coast in October 2002. One Bulgarian crew member was killed and 12 other crewmen were wounded when an explosives-laden boat rammed into the French tanker.
They were also convicted of plotting to kill former US Ambassador in Sanaa Edmund Hull and to attack the embassies of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Cuba.
The three-judge panel led by chief judge Naji Said Al-Qattaa increased the prison sentences of two defendants — Omar Hassan Jarallah and Fawzi Yahya Al-Hababi — from 10 to 15 years and confirmed sentences ranging from three to 10 years for the other 11 members of the group.
Jail sentences of 10 years were upheld against Abu Bakr Al-Rabyee, Mohammed Al-Ammari, Fawzi Al-Wajih and Yasser Salem, the only member of the group tried in absentia.
The court also upheld five-year jail terms against Ibrahim Howeidi, Aref Mejalli, Mohammad Abdullah Al-Delaimi, Abdul Ghani Al-Qithan and Kassem Al-Rimi.
The remaining two — Khaled Al-Julub and Salim Al-Delaimi — had their three-year jail terms upheld.
The sentences must be confirmed by Yemen’s supreme court while death sentences must also be approved by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“Allahu Akbar (God is Great), Death to America,” the defendants shouted after the rulings were announced.
The fathers of the two men sentenced to death protested that the rulings were unfair.
“We must seek to reduce the penalties,” said the father of Fawaz Al-Rabyee, who was wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“Political pressures were applied not only during the appeals process but also during the original trial,” said defense lawyer Hani Mounasser.
Yemen has, at the behest of Washington, cracked down on suspected Islamist extremists since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
The case is one of a series of trials of militants accused of terror acts in Yemen.
The same court will deliver on Feb. 26 its verdict in the trial of six militants accused of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, in which 17 US sailors were killed.
