| Fourteen militants suspected of involvement in terror attacks in the past two years, including the 2002 bombing of a French oil supertanker, go on trial here tomorrow. The 14 defendants are accused of belonging to a terror group involved in the attack on the French tanker Limburg off the Yemeni coast and firing at a chopper belonging to the US company Hunt Oil in Sanaa in November 2002, a judicial source told Arab News yesterday. They are also accused of masterminding bombings near official buildings and homes of security and intelligence staff in 2002 and planning for attacks on Western embassies in Sanaa, said the source. Twelve other militants charged with bombing the US destroyer USS Cole in Aden port in October 2000 will go on trial two weeks later. âPublic Prosecution is still investigating 12 people in the USS Cole case,â the source said. Yemen has been delaying the trial of the Cole suspects since Oct. 2003 on a US request for more time to investigate. The source said among the 12 two were being charged with masterminding the attack: Jamal Muhammad Al-Badawi and Fahd Al-Qasei. The Cole trial will be attended by officials from the US Department of Justice. |