The Prosecution looking into the case of the 6 suspected operatives of the USS Cole asked the Sanaa Criminal Court to uphold the case for final hearings, while the third suspect Fahd al-Qase denied the material evidences submitted by the prosecution against him.
| "Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!" |
The court continued the procedures of the tribunal despite the absence of the advocates for the defendants. On July 7th the court charged the six alleged operatives of the Al-Qaeda terror network in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole October 12th 2000 in Aden port. The prosecutor accused the suspected terrorists of forming or setting up an armed gang, and joining Al-Qaeda, and planning and plotting terrorist acts against the USS Cole, which affected the Yemeni-U.S. relationship, putting Yemen as a target in the war on terrorism. In the attack in 2000, two suicide bombers, Hasan al-Khameri and Ibraheem al-Thawr, in an explosive-laden boat, rammed into the USS Cole as it was refueling in the port city of Aden. The attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer killed 17 American sailors and wounded 39 others.
| Yeah. That did draw some attention Yemen's way, even during the Clinton administration... |
During the sixth hearing session last Wednesday, the prosecution continued presenting to the court a pile of material evidence against the defendants including contracts for camcorders, scientific demolitions reports, a boat purchase report, rental of four houses report and others. Attorney Saeed al-Aki said that the prime suspect Abdulrahim al-Nasheri, in US custody and tried in absentia, along with the USS Cole suicide bombers Hasan al-Khameri and Ibrahim al-Thawr, rented some houses in Aden for preparing the boat for the terrorist operation and monitoring the USS Cole while it was refueling at Aden port. He said that the first house was rented from Saleh Hussein al-Akil and used for preparing the boat in its first phase, a second house looking upon the port was rented for monitoring the US destroyer, the third one was used for the final preparations of the boat and filling it with explosives while the fourth for filming the explosion. The prosecutor said that a fifth house was rented in the Hodiedah governorate, wherein the boat was kept when brought from Jizan in Saudi Arabia before carrying it to Aden.
| The obligatory Soddy involvement... |
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