| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Al-Houthi hard boyz disrupt trial |
| 2005-08-15 |
| Yemen began the trial on Monday of 34 supporters of a slain Shi'ite cleric but the judge quickly adjourned the session after the unruly defendants chanted slogans against the government and its ally the United States. "Death to America, Death to Israel," the defendants shouted in unison before loudly reciting the Koran, drowning out all court proceedings. "We reject this trial as the government that is prosecuting us is our enemy." Before the ruckus erupted, the prosecutor had charged the Yemenis, six of whom are being tried in absentia, with belonging to a subversive armed group. The defendants have confessed to being loyalists of slain rebel Shi'ite cleric Hussein al-Houthi who launched an insurgency against the state last year. The group -- which includes a woman, a 15-year-old and an army officer -- was also charged with launching grenade attacks in the capital Sanaa and of planning to assassinate politicians and army officers. The trial was adjourned a week to Aug. 22. Yemen says the Houthi rebel group wants to install Shi'ite clerical rule and preaches violence against the United States and Israel. The group is not linked to al Qaeda. Houthi was killed last year along with 200 rebels in battles with state troops. The government blamed his father, Sheikh Badr el-Deen 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 loyalists after a spate of grenade attacks in Sanaa this year. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |