 A Yemeni appeals court on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a militant convicted in the 2000 al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole and reduced a death sentence to 15 years in prison against another defendant. The death sentence was upheld against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden. Al-Nashiri, who was believed to have masterminded the Cole attack and thought to have directed the 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was the only defendant who was tried in absentia. He is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.
| Convenient, they don't actually have to hang him. |
The court overturned a death sentence against Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi, sentencing him instead to 15 years in jail. "This is an un-Islamic and illegal sentence," al-Badawi shouted from inside the defendant's cage. The court also upheld a 10-year jail sentence against Fahd al-Qasaa and reduced the sentence against Maamoun al-Msoua from eight years to five. It upheld five-year sentences for Ali al-Muratab and Murad al-Serouri. |