A Yemeni court on Wednesday sentenced 30 Yemenis to between two and 15 years in prison for planning and carrying out attacks for Al-Qaeda. The convicts, part of a group of 36 accused of being members of of Al-Qaeda network, launched an attack in September 2006 on an oil refinery at Marib, 170 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa.
Petrol storage tanks at a terminal operated by the Canadian firm Nexen in southeastern Hadramut province were also targeted.
According to AFP, four of the suspects were acquitted while the court ordered the release of two others on time already served since September 2006.
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 clashes with security forces.
Fugitives Nasser al-Wehaishi and Kassem al-Raimi and Ibrahim al-Huwaidi, three of the most wanted activists in Yemen, each received a 15-year jail term. 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.
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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