Court Upholds Verdict against Abu Al-Hassan’s Successor [Archives:2001/14/Front Page]

The Appeal Court of Sanaa upheld last Wednesday the 7-year imprisonment sentence against Hatem bin Fareed, the successor of Zain Al-Abidden Al-Mihdar known as Abu Al-Hasan and the leader of the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. Abu Al-Hasan was sentenced to death and executed in 1999 for kidnapping 16 tourists in Abyan, four of whom were killed when the police tried to rescue them. Bin Fareed was convicted last year for running the organization, planning to carry out terrorist acts against economic establishments and having dubious relationships with Abu Al-Hamza Al-Masery. Al-Masery is the leader of Ansar al-Shariah Islamic organization based in London. The court said that he gave Abu Al-Hasan £12,000 to conduct terrorists acts in Yemen.
The Yemeni government says the army fragmented after the death of its leader. However, the army members are still active, mainly in Abyan. They are believed to have been involved in the explosions in Aden early this year as well as in the suicide bombing attack on the USS Cole Destroyer last October, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 others injured.
Abu Al-Hamza, who is wanted by the Yemeni government, expressed his open support to the army. He also threatened to take revenge for the death sentence on Abu Al-Hasan.
Yemen still requests the British government to extradite Abu Al-Hamza to be tried and it said that the British officials are now studying the Yemeni request. This development comes as a result of the Yemeni-British cooperation to counter the fresh wave of terrorism in the wake of the visit of a high-ranking British official to Yemen recently.

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