 Yemeni authorities executed yesterday a man convicted of murdering three American Christian missionaries in an attack on a Baptist hospital in southern Yemen in 2002. Abed Abdul Rezak Kamel, 35, was sentenced to death in May 2003 after he was convicted of killing the three Americans on Dec. 30, 2002. He reportedly entered the hospital and bravely gunned down two physicians and an administrator. A fourth missionary was injured in the attack.
Kamel was executed by a firing squad at the central prison in Ibb province, some 190 kilometers south of Sanaa, in the presence of prosecution representatives and lawyers, said the sources. Judicial sources said the verdict, upheld by an appeals court in December 2003, was affirmed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday. Saleh also heads the countryÂ’s Supreme Judicial Council.
| G'bye, Kamel. Give our warmest regards to Himmler. |
| Bet he wishes he was in Guantanamo right now. |
During the trial, Kamil admitted to the crime, and told the court he was defending Islam when he killed the three missionaries. Yemeni officials have said that Kamil was a member of a militant group that had planned to assassinate secular politicians and foreign missionaries working in the Arab country. They said the group was led by the radical preacher Ali Ahmad Jarallah, who was executed last November after a court convicted him of murdering a senior opposition politician on Dec. 29, 2002, just one day before Kamil killed the three Americans. |