Sentences in the Pre-Election Thawrted Oil Attacks
The big sentences are for those still at large.
American Gaber El-Baneh sentenced to ten years in absentia. Did they forget he surrendered in May?
President Saleh’s cousin not mentioned, probably one of the ones released. Update: Yup. From Empty Quarter:
NewsYemen highlights,
Headline in part reads: “Al Tharhani to NewsYemen: I am the victim of bin Shamlan’s downfall…”“The specialized criminal court today, Wednesday, ruled that Hussein al Thurhani, one of the escorts of presidential candidate Faisal bin Shamlan, innocent.”
“Hussein al Thurhani told NewsYemen that the authority had made him a victim of bin Shamlan’s downfall…”
Best part is when al Tharhani’s lawyer takes a swipe at the Prez saying maybe the authority will “learn its lesson” and not circulate stories before the facts are tried in court.
More details:
France 24: Six of the main defendants were tried in absentia, although two of them — Jaber al-Banna and Mohammed al-Omdah — had recently turned themselves in, while another, Hamza al-Qaeiti, was killed in a confrontation with the police.
Fugitives Nasser al-Wehaishi and Kassem al-Raimi and Ibrahim al-Huwaidi, three of the most wanted militants in the impoverished Arabian peninsula country, each received a 15-year jail term….
The six tried in absentia were among a group of 23 Al-Qaeda suspects who escaped from a Sanaa prison in February 2006. The other prison escapees have since turned themselves in, been arrested or killed.
Raimi and Wehaishi have also been accused by the interior ministry of masterminding a July 2 suicide bombing in Marib that killed eight Spanish tourists and two local drivers.
Twenty-nine defendants appeared in court, while one who was found not guilty did not show up for health reasons, an AFP correspondent reported.
almotamar.net – The Specialised Penal court in Yemen condemned Wednesday 32 al-Qaeda members defendants in the case of attempting to ballast of the natural gas two installations in Safer, Marib and Dhabba in Hadramout, killing one of the guards of oil installations and attacks on civilian establishments in Yemen. The court issued its verdicts of imprisonment on the defendants for periods of 2-15 years.
The court chaired by Judge Radwan al-Nimr decided 15 years imprisonment of the three still at large defendants Nasser Abdulkarim al-Wahshi, Ibrahim Mohammed Huwaidi and Qassem Yahya al-Raimi. The court sentenced to 12 years imprisonment the wanted defendant Hamza Salem al-Qaeeti.
A ten-tear imprisonment sentence issued against two still at large defendants Jabr Saleh al-Banaa and Mohammed Saeed Al-Umdah….
The Penal court also issued its sentences of imprisonment against defendants Abubakr Yahya al-Rabeei 8 years, Bandar Mohammed al-Akwaa 6 years, and five years imprisonment for each of Aminudin Ali al-Wurfi, Imad Ahmed Shas, and Ibrahim Ahmed al-Sakhi.
The court issued it sentence of 4 four year in prison against defendants Abdulmajeed Abdullah al-Arri and Nabil Yahya al-Ashnouri. Three-year imprisonment was issued against other two defendants and three years and a half against other two, other three defendants were given two years and a half.
Eight others of the accused were sentenced to two-year imprisonment for each. The court also acquitted four of the defendants from the charges against them.
SANA’A, Yemen – A Yemeni state security court on Wednesday handed down jail sentences ranging from two to 15 years on 32 men convicted of plotting terror attacks including two car bombs, on oil facilities in 2006.
The convicts included the Al Qaeda leader in Yemen Nasser Al Wuhaishi, and the group’s second-in-command Qassim Al Raimi, who received 15-year jail term each, for planning two car bomb attacks on two oil facilities in the south-eastern province of Hadhramout and the north-eastern province of Marib.
The September 2006 attacks with four pick-up trucks left four attackers and a security guard dead.
Four other leading Al Qaeda members received prison sentences of 10-15 years for rules in preparing for the two bombings.
Thirty other convicts got prison terms of two to eight years for lesser rules in the alleged plots.
The men were also charged with ‘taking part in forming an armed band to carry out sabotage and criminal acts and to attack foreigners living in Yemen.’
Prosecutors told the court the men had prepared explosives, firearms, vehicles, masks to use them in the attacks.
Prosecutors said the 36 defendants had provided the suicide oil attackers with logistic support.
They said the suspects also involved in planning bomb attacks in mid 2006 against a lucrative hotel in Sana’a frequented by foreigners and an apartment compound housing American diplomats as well as the building of the Yemeni Businessmen Board.
The court acquitted four defendants for the lack of sufficient evidence. Among them was Hussein Al Dharhani, a bodyguard of the opposition’s candidate to the presidential elections that was held in last September, Faisal bin Shamaln.
Al Dharhani, whose arrest two days ahead of the voting day was blasted by opposition leaders as a political play, was charged with giving shelter to four of the suspects.
Presiding judge Radhwan Al Namir said the court found the charge against Al Dharhani ‘was not compatible with the upon which he was arrested.’
Prosecutors attending the verdict session said they would appeal it.
‘These penalties do not correspond with the crimes they (convicts) committed,’ prosecutor Khaled Al Mawri told the court shortly after the ruling was pronounced.
When the trial began last March, thirteen of the defendants were brought to the court. Six others were tried in absentia.
All the present defendants had pleaded not guilty and ten of them said they had made confessions under duress during police interrogation.
Abu Bakr
The trial began in March with the 30 defendants in custody all pleading innocent to the charges.
Three of them had said they had been tortured and forced to sign confessions, Yemen’s official news agency SABA reported.
Abu Bakr al-Rubaei, the leading suspect among those in custody, was among those who said he had come under duress to confess to the planned attacks.
He had allegedly admitted that he and others planned to carry out attacks against Western and US interests, as well as the homes of foreign diplomats in the country.
He also told the court that he was asked by some groups to become involved in attacks in Yemen and Iraq, but that he refused involvement.
Al-Rubaei, who was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, is the brother of Fawaz Yahya al-Rubaei, who was killed in a 2006 raid in Yemen’s capital San’aa.
Fawaz had been convicted of an attack on a French oil tanker but later escaped from prison.
