Aden: Doctors to Examine Torture Claims [Archives:1999/16/Governance]
April 19 1999
The court decided to permit a team of doctors to be allowed to examine the suspects, who have alleged they were tortured in prison. The court, which is currently trying the extremists, said that the team of doctors should report back in two weeks. It said the foreign doctors, who should be chosen by lawyers, should be from the United States, the Netherlands, Germany or France. The three doctors should also be approved by the Yemeni Health Ministry. The defendants have been accused of forming a militant group to carry out terrorist acts in Yemen. Nine have denied the charges. The tenth, Mohammed Mustafa Kamal, son of a London-based extremist activist, has admitted to forming an armed group, but denied the other charges. Some of the defendants in the terrorist trial had alleged they were subjected to torture, and rejected a report by a government doctor who had examined them and said he did not find any evidence to support their claims. Appointing neutral doctors to examine the 10 had been a long-standing demand by defense lawyers, who on Wednesday appeared in court after threats that a court-appointed team would take over if they failed to attend.
The defense lawyers had withdrawn last month from the case as they had fundamental differences with the prosecution and the court, “We would not return until a fair trial was guaranteed,” said the defense team last month. On Wednesday the defense team repeated a request that confessions obtained by investigators should not be read in court or taken as implicating evidence as they had been taken under torture. The request has been strongly disputed by the prosecution.
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