http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=119604&d=25&m=2&y=2009
Wednesday 25 February 2009 (01 Rabi` al-Awwal 1430)
Yemen jails four over bomb plot
Khaled Al-Mahdi | Arab News
SANAA: A Yemeni court yesterday sentenced three Al-Qaeda suspects to
seven years in prison and a fourth to two years in jail for plotting attacks
against government installations and Westerners in the capital Sanaa.
Judge Muhssien Alwan said the court found the four men guilty of forming
an armed group and plotting attacks on hotels frequented by Westerners in
Sanaa. He said the plot also included targeting state installations in the city.
Prosecutors said the men had planned attacks to avenge the killing of
leading Al-Qaeda member in Yemen, Hamza Al-Quaiti, who was shot dead in a
police raid in Hadhramout last August.
Essam Muhammed Ghailan 24, Munir Hamoud Al-Bawni, 23, Muhammed Muhssien
Al-Saadi, 24, received a seven-year jail term each. Al-Saadi's younger brother
Osama, 15, was sentenced to two years in prison for resisting police arrest.
The defendants told the court they would not appeal the verdict, saying the
trial was illegal.
"This trial is illegal, this verdict is unjust," Muhammed Al-Saadi
shouted from behind the screen bars after the court verdict was pronounced. The
ruling said the four suspects set up the terror cell and collected weapons and
ammunition to be used in attacks.
Meanwhile, six African migrants drowned and 11 were reported missing and
presumed dead after traffickers forced passengers overboard a boat in deep
water off Yemen's southeastern coast, the United Nations refugee agency
reported yesterday.
The boat was carrying 52 passengers - 40 Somalis and 12 Ethiopians -
across the Gulf of Aden, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in
a statement. Yemeni authorities recovered six bodies near Huseysa, about 500 km
east of the southern port city of Aden, according to the statement.
The boat was one of seven boats carrying migrants that reached the Yemeni
coast on Friday after making the perilous voyage from the Horn of Africa.
Survivors reported that the boat departed on Thursday from Suweto, in
northern Somalia's Bossasso region.
When the smugglers noticed the presence of Yemeni police onshore, they
refused to get closer to the coast and forced passengers overboard in deep
water, the UN agency said. Initial reports said 35 people reached shore near
Huseysa, it added.
More than 50,000 migrants, the vast majority of them Somalis, resorted to
traffickers for the treacherous sea crossing between Somalia and Yemen in 2008.
At least 590 people drowned and another 359 were reported missing last
year as result of crossings gone wrong, often with traffickers forcing the
migrants overboard, UNHCR said.
Judge suspended
A judge who approved a slavery contract was suspended from work. An
official said Judge Hadi Abu Asag was also ordered to attend a disciplinary
hearing.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized
to speak to the media.
The investigation into Abu Asag came after a human rights group accused
the judge of approving the sale of a 26-year-old man named "slave Qannaf" last
year.
The contract for the sale had the signatures of the judge and several
other court officials.
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world. Its constitution bans
slavery, but there have been reports the practice continues in the remote
hinterland.
- Input from agencies
