Al-Banna stabbed foreigners to “Get closer to God” [Archives:2004/794/Front Page]

Mohammed Al-Qadhi
The trial of Mohammed Jaber al-Banna, accused of stabbing three foreign citizens in Sana'a during the war on Iraq, started Saturday in a Sana'a appeal court.
The prosecution has accused al-Banna of attempting to kill a Dutch, a German and an Austrian citizen, using a dagger. The prosecution showed the court the seized materials which included a dagger, hand grenade as well as a computer.
The defendant said he carried out the crime “to get closer to God.”
He also said he received a support of $60,000 from a “benevolent” without disclosing his identity when he was in Britain with his father. However, advocate Saleh al-Tayaar alleged that his client suffers from mental disorder and demanded that he should be attended by a doctor in the court.
The Sana'a appeal court also decided to postpone the case of the 15 convicted al-Qaeda militants until next Saturday in order to allow the defendants time to refute the case presented by the prosecution.
A lower Sana'a primary court sentenced August 28th one al-Qaeda militant to death while 14 others received prison terms of three to 10 years after being found guilty of forming an armed group and carrying out attacks on Yemeni and Western targets, mainly the attack on the French oil tanker Limburg .
Appeal court judge Saeed al-Qatta'a ordered the prosecution to provide the defendants with pens and papers to write their appeal suit as well as copies of the penal and criminal laws as they complained they could not refute the claims of the prosecution due to lack of writing materials.
Another five al-Qaeda supporters were sentenced to 10 years in jail for bombing the French supertanker Limburg. They are Omar Saeed Hasan Jarallah, Fawzi al-Wajeeh, Mohammed Saeed Ali al-Amari, Fawzi Yahia al-Hababi, and Yasser Ali Salem (tried in absentia).
The two brothers Fawaz al-Rabee and Abu Bakr al-Rabee were also sentenced to 10 years in jail. The conviction of Fawaz al-Rabee, the ring leader, included the attack on the US Hunt Oil company helicopter and the detonation of explosions at a civil aviation authority building.
Al-Rabee also was fined $100,000 to compensation to the civil aviation authority for the building damage. He also participated in the murder of Khasroof.
The other five militants (Ibraheem Mohammed al-Huwaidi, Aref Saleh Ali Mujali, Mohammed Abdullah al-Dailami, Abdulghani Ali Hussein Kaifan, and Kasem Yahia al-Raimee) were sentenced to five years in prison. They were found guilty of plotting attacks against the US, French, UK, Cuban and German embassies, plotting to assassinate former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Edmund Hull as well as intelligence officials.
The two defendants- Khaled Ahmad al-Jalob, and Saleem Mohammed Ali al-Dailami, were sentenced to three years in prison for falsifying documents relating to the various attacks.
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