15 Yemeni militants convicted on terror charges

Hindustan Times ^ | August 29 2004 | Press Trust of India

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A court convicted 15 Yemeni militants on terror charges including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and plotting to kill the US ambassador. One man was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer and seven received 10 year prison terms. Six of the defendants plus the one man tried in absentia, who received the longest prison terms, 10 years, were found guilty of participating in the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg oil tanker, which killed one Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

The conviction of one of those men, Fawaz al-Rabeiee, also included the attack a helicopter carrying Hunt Oil Co employees a month later and for detonating explosions at civil aviation authority building. Al-Rabeiee also was fined 18 million Yemeni riyals ($100,000) to compensate for the building damage.

The death sentence was handed down to Hazam Majali, convicted of killing a Yemeni police officer at a checkpoint in 2002.

Six militants were sentenced to five years in prison. They were found guilty of detonating explosives at embassies, plotting to assassinate US ambassador Edward Hull as well as security officials and for roles in the attack on the helicopter carrying employees of Texas-based Hunt Oil.

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Cross-reference:

Yemen sentences one to death, 14 to jail on terror charges
www.chinaview.cn 2004-08-29 13:29:47

SANAA, Aug. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A Yemeni court on Saturday sentenced one militant to death and 14 others to prison terms of three to 10 years on terror charges, according to local reports.

Reports said the one receiving the death penalty was convicted of plotting to kill the American ambassador to the Arab state and killing a Yemeni police officer.

Nine militants received prison terms of three to 10 years for planning attacks against the embassies of the United States, Germany, France, Britain and Cuba.

The rest five, all alleged al-Qaida supporters, were sentenced to 10 years in jail on charges of carrying out the bombing of the French supertanker Limburg.

The five al-Qaida supporters said the Limburg bombing they conducted in 2002 was ordered by Ali al-Harthi, al-Qaida's top Yemen operative who was killed by a missile fired by a CIA drone aircraft later in the same year.

Yemen has arrested hundreds of people suspected of al-Qaida ties after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States in an effort to shed its image as a hotbed for militants.