SANAA, 4 October 2005 — A Yemeni court yesterday acquitted four Iraqis of plotting to blow up the US and British embassies in Yemen in 2003 and ordered their release.
The trial, which began on Aug. 7, saw the four men tried for “taking part in a criminal agreement to form an armed group,” aimed at launching attacks against Western targets.
Prosecutors told the court the defendants were officers in the Iraqi intelligence service who came to Yemen in late 2002, three of them posing as teachers with the fourth acting as a businessman.
The prosecution claimed that police had seized four suitcases packed with explosives and remote control detonators in the group’s alleged safe house in Sanaa.
Presiding judge Muhammad Al-Baadani said there was no proof of the men’s connection to the Iraqi intelligence service and gave them the choice of remaining in Yemen or returning to Iraq.
