ZARQAWI’S YEMENI CELL
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Seventeen suspected members of Al Qaeda in Yemen appeared in court, on Wednesday 02/22/2006, charged with plotting attacks against Western targets in Yemen on the orders of Al Qaeda’s Iraq front man Abu Musab al Zarqawi and Ansar al Islam, in 2004-5, and forming an illegal armed gang in Yemen. Five of the defendants were Saudi Arabia’s citizens. The suspects were arrested in early 2005 in Sanaa and Aden.
The Yemeni ringleader of the group, Ali Abdullah Naji al-Hussyan, also known as Abu Ali al-Harithi, 28, admitted possessing weapons and explosives, but said he had handed them over himself to the authorities.
Mohamed Saeed Al-Qabsh, the lieutenant of Ali al-Hussyan, was also accused of recruiting Yemeni volunteers to Iraq to fight alongside the Iraqi insurgence against USA.
At the hearing, the court allowed suspect Ali al-Hussyan to affirm his allegation that he voluntarily surrendered electrical circuits to political security, while suspect Musaed Mohamed Al-Barbari, was allowed to be transferred for medical care to a Hospital.
* ALI SUFYAN’S CELL TRIAL –
On 04/18/2006, in another case, a Yemeni court sentenced 13 Islamist militants to prison terms of up to seven years for planning attacks against American and other Western targets. The suspects were arrested on 05/09/2004.
Group leader Ali Sufyan al-Amari was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in founding the group with the intent of kidnapping foreigners and bombing Western interests in Yemen.
Other members of the group received prison terms ranging between 18 months to six years. One of the 14 defendants, Faisal Abdul Aziz, was acquitted because he had turned himself in and cooperated with investigators.
The defendants Al-Zubair Abdul Rahman al-Mikhlafi, Mohammed and Khalid Abdul Aziz Qateeni, Hassan Ali al-Hadda and Jamal Abdeh Nasser al-Qumadi each received four years.
Hamid Mohammed Radman al-Wisabi, Badr al-Husseini, Mohammed Ali Hayder, Ibrahim Mabkhut al-Wasabi and Ammar Ahmed Saleh al-Muradi were sentenced to 3 years term.
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