SANAA, 6 March 2006 — A Yemeni state security court yesterday sentenced two young men to five years in prison after convicting them of attacking the former US ambassador to the country in 2004.
Hizam Ali Hassan Al-Mass, 17, and Khaled Saleh Al-Halila, 18, were found guilty of trying to assassinate the US Ambassador to Yemen Edmund J. Hull by a hand grenade.
Presiding judge Muhammad Al-Baadani said Al-Mass had chased the US diplomat and tried to throw a hand grenade at him as he was shopping in the commercial area of Hadda in Sanaa.
Prosecutors said policemen guarding the ambassador foiled the attack and caught Al-Mass.
Halila was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy by monitoring the movement of the ambassador’s convoy and helping the attacker get explosives.
Al-Mass confessed to the attempted attack during the trial. Al-Halila denied being involved in the attack, and said he had only driven Al-Mass in his taxi to a weapon market to buy a pistol and grenade.
The judge said the maximum jail term for the crime was 10 years, but he had halved it because the convicted attacker was under age.
The court refused a plea by the lawyers of Al-Mass that he was psychologically ill.
After hearing the verdict pronounced, the two defendants wept. “This is unfair .. this is unfair,” Halila shouted in protest. “What have we done to be jailed for five years?” he asked the judge.
Both Al-Mass and Halila said they would appeal the sentence.
