Al-Qaida's number two man in Yemen appeared in court for a second hearing on charges of raising large funds from Saudi businessmen to support the terrorist group. Public Prosecutor Khaled Mawry told the court Monday that Mohammed Hamdi Ahdal, also known as Abu Assem, admitted he has raised in four years more than one million Saudi riyals ($266,000) from Saudi businessmen to support al-Qaida operations in Yemen.Mawry said Ahdal acknowledged that he gave 70,000 riyals to Abu Ali al-Harithy, al-Qaida leader in Yemen who was killed in November 2002 in a U.S. drone attack in the province of Maarib, northeast of Sanaa. Ahdal also confessed that he has traveled to Afghanistan for military training then went to Bosnia to fight through the intermediary of a Saudi charity group called Berr and Ihsan. He was later imprisoned in Saudi Arabia before being deported to Yemen. Additionally, he raised funds for Chechen fighters in Yemen and handed 30,000 Saudi riyals to Ghaleb Sayidi, also a defendant in the same case, to promote Muslim extremism and encourage youth to take on jihad (holy war) in the province of Maarib.
Ahdal denied before the court all the accusations filed against him by the public prosecutor, arguing that he was forced to make false confessions during his 7 months in solitary confinement. Ahdal was arrested in 2003 and his trial began on Feb. 13, a week after 23 al-Qaida prisoners deemed among the most dangerous in the country, escaped from the central intelligence prison in Sanaa, touching off Washington's outrage and criticism. Among the escapees, 13 were convicted in the Oct. 23, 2000 bombing of USS Cole in which 17 U.S. servicemen were killed.