SANAA, 24 January 2006 — A Yemeni man repatriated last year from the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appeared before a state security court in Sanaa yesterday charged with drug trafficking.
Karama Saeed Khamsan, 33, was accused of traveling to Pakistan to secure the delivery of two tons of hashish for $533,000 for a Yemeni partner.
The consignment was due to be smuggled across the Arabian Sea to the southern Yemeni province of Al-Mahra and then through the porous borders to Saudi Arabia.
It was not clear from the court documents whether the shipment had been delivered.
It was while in Pakistan in 2001 near the border with Afghanistan that Khamsan was arrested by Pakistani police and handed over to US forces who had toppled the Taleban regime in neighboring Afghanistan.
Prosecutors told the court the defendant had admitted to the drug-trafficking charge during police interrogations, but Khamsan pleaded not guilty and asked the court to postpone the hearing until he commissioned a lawyer.
Presiding judge Najeeb Al-Qadri adjourned the trial until Feb. 6.
Although Khamsan was the first Guantanamo prisoner to go on trial in Yemen, he was not accused of any terrorist charges.
Around 500 detainees are being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison, most of them arrested during the US-led war on Afghanistan.
Yemeni authorities are still checking the nationality of 110 Guantanamo captives who are said to be Yemenis. Five, including Khamsan, have been returned to the country and are awaiting trial.
