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Yemen reopens the case of 11 al-Qaeda
An appeals court in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday reopened the trial of 11 Al-Qaeda suspects, six of whom had been given two-year jail terms and the five others acquitted.Said al-Aqel for the prosecution charged that the verdict delivered by a Sanaa court on March 21 flouted the Yemeni penal code, since the defendants "confessed to forging travel documents, which is punishable by three to seven years imprisonment". Appeals court president Said al-Qataa set a session on May 3 to hear the defendants' response. The group had been accused of planning to carry out "criminal acts" in Yemen and abroad. But the court last month sentenced six of them to two-year prison terms only on charges of forging passports and other documents, while clearing the five others of all charges. The defendants, all Yemenis and at least six of whom were born in Saudi Arabia, went on trial on February 14. The charges against them included possession of arms and explosives and forging documents and passports. The prosecution claimed the 11 had trained in camps in Afghanistan between 1998 and 2002, and were plotting and raising funds for "criminal acts." It also charged they had planned to travel to Iraq to fight US-led forces and demanded the maximum punishment for all the accused, who faced up to 10 years in prison. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-04-27 |
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