A Yemeni court on Saturday began the appeal hearing of 36 Yemenis sentenced to jail last year for planning and carrying out attacks for Al-Qaeda, an AFP correspondent said. The men were sentenced last November to jail terms of between two and 15 years after they were convicted over an abortive twin attack on oil intallations in Marib and Hadramut provinces.
Among those in court on Saturday was Jaber al-Banna, a senior Al-Qaeda figure who was allowed to leave the court at the end of the session despite being sentenced to 10 years in absentia in the original case.
| Just walked free, did he? |
Banna holds joint US-Yemeni citizenship and is wanted by the US on charges of providing material support to Al-Qaeda. Washington is offering a reward of up to five million dollars for his arrest.
| Triple it, and get Mahmoud the Weasel to work. |
Yemen and the United States have previously clashed over Jamal al-Badawi, an Al-Qaeda fighter convicted of involvement in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the southern port of Aden which killed 17 American sailors. He was subsequently temporarily released by the Yemeni authorities.
Al-Qaeda also launched an abortive attack in September 2006 on an oil refinery at Marib, 170 kilometres (105 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, and targeted petrol storage tanks at a terminal operated by Canadian firm Nexen in the southeastern Hadramut province at the same time. |