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| Arabia |
| Yemeni cleric sentenced to death |
| 2005-12-03 |
| A Yemeni court of appeals on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a Shia cleric and a ten-year prison term against another over spying for Iran and supporting an armed rebellion by a Shia group in northern Yemen last year. The court decided to refer the death sentence handed by a lower court to Yahya Hussein Al Dailami and the ten-year jail term given to Muhammad Ahmad Muftah to the Supreme Court. A state security court convicted the pair on May 29 of âhaving contacts with the state Iran with the aim of harming the diplomatic and political position of Yemen.â The two men, who are mosque preachers in the capital Sanaâa, were also found guilty of âconspiring to overthrow the republican regime.â Prosecutors said Al Dailami had maintained contacts with the Iranian ambassador in Sanaa seeking support for his group. Dailami also âtravelled to Iran and made contacts with the Iranian state seeking support for an Islamic revolution in Yemen,â read the initial verdict. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |