SANAA: A court trying a former Yemeni ambassador for urging the secession of the country’s south heard evidence yesterday that the defendant was leading separatist demonstrations, court documents showed.
Qassem Askar, who was an ambassador until 1994, led protests calling for the separation of the country’s impoverished south and communicated with Yemeni opposition leaders abroad, the documents revealed.
He is being charged with “crimes aimed at harming national unity, jeopardizing the constitution and instigating an armed revolt against the authorities,” according to the charge sheet read out at the trial’s opening earlier this month.
Askar is from Lahij province, near the port city of Aden, capital of former South Yemen. He argues that the court specialized in terrorism and state security issues is not qualified to handle his case, which he calls political.
Askar, 58, reiterated yesterday his refusal to respond to the charges, saying he would wait until a lawyer is present.
Activist Fady Hassan Baoum, who was involved in protests in south Yemen, went on trial in Sanaa on Monday charged with committing criminal acts that harmed national unity.
At least 18 people have been killed, including five members of the security forces, in sporadic clashes between police and protesters since fighting broke out in late April.
Meanwhile, prosecutors yesterday demanded the death sentence for 16 suspected Al-Qaeda members on trial over a spate of deadly attacks in the country.
“The public prosecution demands the maximum penalty for the defendants for their acts that harm peace and security and the economic and political damage they caused to Yemen,” the public prosecutor’s representative told a penal court specializing in “terrorism” cases in Sanaa.
The defendants — 11 Yemenis, four Syrians and a Saudi — are accused of carrying out 13 armed attacks over the past two years on foreign targets, government establishments and oil facilities.
Three of the defendants, all of whom were present in the dock, pleaded innocent of the charges against them and demanded recompense for what they called moral and financial harm incurred on them.
“I demand that the charges against me be dropped — the charges I have never heard of until I was interrogated,” said Hossam Al-Amoudi, who was arrested in Syria on returning from Iraq.
The other accused have previously denied the charges leveled against them.
The court is expected to issue its verdict on July 13.
