SANAA, 10 June 2008 — A Yemeni court yesterday sentenced a Shiite rebel to death and 12 others to jail terms of up to 10 years after they were convicted of forming an armed group and killing two security officers.
The court acquitted one of two women among a total of 15 defendants charged with forming “Sanaa’s Cell Two” by rebels who have been battling security forces in northwest Yemen since 2004. Charges against a male defendant who died in prison were dropped.
The man condemned to death was named as Jaafar Al-Mirhabi, 25. Among those sentenced to prison was the editor of Zaidi weekly Al-Shura, Abdel Karim Al-Khiwani, who was jailed for six years.
Four of the defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison, while two others were jailed for eight years. Another defendant was jailed for six years.
Mona Ali Zaid Al-Khalek, the second woman in the alleged cell, was sentenced to four years in prison, while three other people were handed down jail terms of between one and five years.
The group, whose trial opened last July 4, was convicted of plotting to attack Yemeni troop transporters and government buildings and contaminate the water supply of military bases.
They were also found guilty of killing two security officials who died chasing “criminals,” court papers said, without providing further details.
Yemen’s union of journalists condemned the sentence against Khiwani, who was taken into custody straight after the sentence was pronounced.
“The court sentence against Khiwani is harsh. We reject and condemn it, and it should be revoked,” said the head of the union, Nasr Taha Mostapha.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qarubi said yesterday that the constitution bars the country from handing over two convicted Al-Qaeda suspects wanted by the United States. He said the issue was “behind the crisis in Yemen-US relations.”
The two suspects are Jaber Al-Banna, a Yemeni-American convicted of planning attacks on oil installations in Yemen, and Jamal Al-Badawi, the Al-Qaeda mastermind of the 2000 bombing of USS Cole bombing that killed 17 US sailors.
Al-Qarubi also said he had canceled a recently planned visit to the US because he didn’t want it to focus on the case rather than other pressing issues, such as economy and development.
He denied US accusations that Yemen has been lenient with the suspects after a Sanaa court commuted Al-Badawi’s death sentence to 15 years in prison.
“There is no country which endangers its own security situation by appeasing terrorism,” Al-Qarubi said. But there are certain factors that make some countries choose different means to fight terrorism because of those country’s tribal and social structure.” Yemeni law bans extradition, Al-Qarubi said.
