Two Yemenis get death for Limburg and other attacks

An appeals court here yesterday upheld the death sentence against a Yemeni and sentenced to death another who had been jailed over the 2002 bombing of the French oil super tanker Limburg and other terrorist acts.

Huzam Saleh Mejalli’s death sentence was confirmed, and Fawaz Al Rabei, the leader of the group who had been given a 10-year jail term, was condemned to death.

Both were also convicted of killing an intelligence officer.

During the proceedings last December, Al Rabei confessed that he and other members of the group had pledged to Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden that they would kill Americans.

“We were very close to Shaikh Osama bin Laden ... We had given our pledge to Shaikh Osama to kill Americans,” Al Rabei said during the final arguments in the court.

Al Rabei is among a group of 15 Yemenis sentenced in August for planning terrorist acts, including an attempt to kill former US Ambassador Edmund Hull.

One Bulgarian crew member was killed and 12 other crew wounded when an explosives-laden boat rammed the Limburg as it prepared to enter Ash Shir port off Yemen’s southeastern coast in October 2002.

The court, which convened amid tight security, increased jail terms from 10 to 15 years for two convicts, Omar Said Jarallah and Fawzi Al Hababi.

Jail sentences of 10 years were upheld against four others — Abu Bakr Al Rabei, Mohammad Al Ammari, Fawzi Al Wajih and Yasser Salem, the only member of the group tried in absentia.

The court also upheld five-year jail terms against Ebrahim Howeidi, Aref Mejalli, Mohammad Abdullah Al Delaimi, Abdul Gani Al Qithan and Kassem Al Rimi.

The remaining two — Khalid Al Julub and Salim Al Delaimi — had their three-year jail terms upheld.

The sentences must be confirmed by Yemen’s supreme court and the death sentences must also be approved by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), Death to America,” the defendants screamed after the rulings were announced. The fathers of the two men sentenced to death protested against the rulings. “We must seek to reduce the penalties,” said the father of Fawaz Al Rabei, who was wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The writer is an Arab journalist based in Sanaa