| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Yemen Rebels Disrupt Start of Terror Trial |
| 2005-08-16 |
| SANAA, 16 August 2005 â A Yemeni security court yesterday began the trial of 34 suspected supporters of slain preacher Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi but the judge quickly adjourned the session after the defendants chanted anti-government slogans drowning out court proceedings. âDeath to America, Death to Israel,â the defendants shouted in unison before loudly reciting the Qurâan, drowning out all court proceedings. âWe reject this trial as the government that is prosecuting us is our enemy.â Before the ruckus erupted, the prosecutor had charged the Yemenis with belonging to a subversive armed group. Chief prosecutor Saeed Al-Aqel accused the defendants of a spate of attacks on soldiers and military vehicles in the capital in recent months, in which one officer was killed and 27 other people wounded. âThey were also planning to attack the intelligence services building, an army barracks and the airport as well as the (state) television. They had prepared the arms, ammunition and rockets for these attacks,â he charged. The group â which includes a woman, a 15-year-old and an army officer â was also charged with launching grenade attacks in the capital Sanaa and of planning to assassinate politicians and army officers. Security was tight around the courthouse as 28 of the accused were brought into the dock. The six other defendants were being tried in absentia. A 20-year-old woman suspect who has been released on bail as she is pregnant also did not attend the hearing. The trial is scheduled to resume on Aug. 22. Prosecutors say the defendants are members of the âBelieving Youthâ group established by Hussein Al-Houthi who launched a three-month insurgency in the northern Yemeni province of Saada, 250 km north of Sanaa, last year. More than 400 insurgents and troops were killed in the fighting. The government blamed his father, Badruddin Al-Houthi, for a new round of fighting that erupted in March and in which 170 rebels and security forces were killed. The elder Houthi has since accepted an amnesty and agreed to stop fighting. But the government has arrested scores of supporters after a spate of grenade attacks in Sanaa this year. |
| Posted by:Steve |