AL-MIHDAR EXECUTED [Archives:1999/42/Front Page]

SANAA: Yesterday, Sunday the 17th of October, official sources indicated that the execution of Abulhassan Al-Mihdar took place. This gives the conclusion that indeed, President Saleh had endorsed the sentence, and ordered the immediate execution of the terrorist leader. This happened few days after the supreme court  upheld the sentence of death against the commander of Aden Abyan Islamist Army, Zein Al-Abidin Al-Mihdar, while it reduced the sentence against Abdullah Saleh Al-Junaidi to 20 years in prison. Al-Mihdar had already confessed that he aimed at killing the 3 Britons and an Australian whom he kidnapped in December 98, however the defendants deny that they were the ones who killed them, accusing the rescuing forces of having done the crime. The other defendants who were tried in absentia and acquitted by the primary court, had their files reopened by the supreme court. However, the death sentence was not to be executed until the permission came from President Saleh endorses to do so. 
This decision of the President gave a strong signal to terrorists and has shown that there will be no further tolerance for any terrorist action against tourists, such as the latest one committed by the Aden-Abyan Army which led to the death of westerners, causing the tourism industry severe damage, and a horrible decline in tourism revenues for the year 1999. 
  OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT  On Sunday Oct. 17, the execution of Zein Al-Abidin Abubakr Abdullah Al-Mihdar (Abulhassan) took place in Sanaa for forming an armed group, kidnapping a number of western tourists and injuring and killing some of them, resisting police forces, and committing a number of explosions in some Yemeni governorates. Based on rulings of the primary court of Moudia and the appeal court of Abyan, both which are approved by the supreme court in Sanaa and endorsed by the President of the Republic of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the capital punishment execution, which was carried out by gun fire to the heart, was witnessed by representatives from the attorney and the court and security forces. The lifeless body of Al-Mihdar will be sent to his family. 
The supreme court  already approved the primary court’s decision of death penalty, and ordered the direct implementation of the rulings which include: Death to Abulhassan Al-Mihdarm and 20 years imprisonment for Abu Hureirah, and Ahmed Atif, and Abdullah Al-Junidy. The court has also rejected the appeal of the defendants and ordered the immediate implementation of the verdict. After the President had approved the verdict, the execution took place in order to complete the judicial proceedings. This to signal a strong and stiff measured era against terrorists in Yemen. 

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