Posted on 02/05/2005 2:56:59 AM PST by Cornpone
SANAA (AFP) The appeals court in Sanaa upheld the death sentence against a Yemeni and sentenced to death another who had been jailed over the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg and other attacks.
Huzam Saleh Mejalli death sentence of last August was confirmed, while Fawaz al-Rabei, who had been given a 10-year jail term, was condemned to death. Both were also convicted of killing a policeman.
They are among a group of 15 Yemenis sentenced in August for the Limburg bombing and a series of other attacks.
One Bulgarian crew member was killed and 12 other crew wounded when an explosives-laden boat rammed the Limburg as it prepared to enter Ash-Shir port off Yemen's southeastern coast in October 2002.
The court, which convened amid tight security measures, increased jail terms from 10 to 15 years against two convicts, Omar Said Jarallah and Fawzi al-Hababi.
Jail sentences of 10 years were upheld against four others -- Abu Bakr al-Rabei, Mohammed al-Ammari, Fawzi al-Wajih and Yasser Salem, the only member of the group tried in absentia.
The court also upheld five-year jail terms against Ibrahim Howeidi, Aref Mejalli, Mohammad Abdullah al-Delaimi, Abdul Ghani al-Qithan and Kassem al-Rimi.
The remaining two -- Khaled al-Julub and Salim al-Delaimi -- had their three-year jail terms upheld.
The sentences must be confirmed by Yemen's supreme court while death sentences must also be approved by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
"Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), Death to America," the defendants shouted after the rulings were announced.
The fathers of the two men sentenced to death protested that the rulings were unfair.
"We must seek to reduce the penalties," said the father of Fawaz al-Rabei, who was wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and is believed to be the ringleader of the group.
The convicts, all in their twenties, had been accused of forming an armed group to undermine security in Yemen by carrying out attacks including the bombing of the Limburg and planning attacks against former US Ambassador Edmund Hull and several embassies.
Other charges included falsifying documents and committing state security crimes.
"Political pressures were applied not only during the appeals process but also during the original trial," said defense lawyer Hani Mounasser.
Yemen has, at the behest of Washington, cracked down on suspected Islamist extremists since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
The appeals court will on February 26 deliver a verdict in the case of six Al-Qaeda militants sentenced to death or prison in the 2000 bombing of the US navy destroyer Cole in Aden port, which killed 17 US sailors.
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