Another dramatic turn took place in the case of the Sana'a Ripper yesterday when Yemeni authorities claimed that the serial killer, Mohammed Adam Omar, was an agent of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Colonel Sawadah Omar Al Ayashi, the police officer in charge of the case of the Sudanese morgue assistant among whose victims was a 23-year-old girl from Ras Al Khaimah, alleged that Adam has been working for Mossad since the mid-1970s and had served them in many Arab states.

He said that Adam had entered Yemen several times since the mid-1970s and had admitted it. He claimed that Adam was arrested by Yemeni authorities and jailed for six months in the mid-1970s, after which he was released and deported. Adam also entered South Yemen in 1984 in order to spy on the Palestinian military camps there.

He alleged that Adam had been using fake passports issued by some Arab states, and that the authorities had confiscated from him a Jordanian passport bearing the name John Adam. He claimed that the recruiting of Mohammed Adam as a morgue assistant had been "arranged" and that he had been recruited by a Sudanese professor at Sana'a University who is currently working in Sharjah. He also claimed that this professor had convinced the university that Adam had rare abilities in conducting autopsies, with long experience.

According to Col. Al Ayashi, the Yemeni authorities have just received a letter from the Sudanese Ministry of Interior stating that Mohammed Adam does not have anything to do with morgue work, and that he has never worked in this field in Sudan. The letter said Adam was a watchman and a cleaner at a cemetery in Khartoum.