Appeal procedures on Limburg case kicks off [Archives:2004/780/Front Page]

The appeal procedures in the trial of the defendants convicted of the French oil supertanker bombing started this week, a Yemeni judicial source said. It added that Judge Saeed al-Qata will handle the appeal hearing sessions of the trial of the 15 alleged al-Qaeda militants. The source expected that the appeal hearing sessions in the case of the USS Cole terrorist attack would start soon.
The Sana'a Penal Court concerned with terrorism on Saturday August 28th sentenced one al-Qaeda militant to death while 14 others received prison terms of three to ten years after being found guilty of forming an armed group and carrying out attacks on Yemeni and Western targets. The court run by Judge Ahmad al-Jermozi sentenced Hizam Mujali to a death sentence for killing a security man named Hamid Khasroof at a security checkpoint.
Five other al-Qaeda supporters were sentenced to ten 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 (who was tried in absentia). The judge, while reading the verdict, said these defendants were found guilty of participating in the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg oil tanker, which killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the port of Mukala.
The two brothers Fawaz al-Rabee and Abu Bakr al-Rabee were sentenced to 10 years in jail. The conviction of Fawaz al-Rabeiee, the ring leader, included the attack on a US Hunt Oil company helicopter and the detonation of explosions at a civil aviation authority building. Al-Rabee was also fined $100,000 as compensation for 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.
The defendants and their relatives strongly condemned and rejected the verdict, doubting the legitimacy of the court. They decided to appeal the sentence which they described as “American”.
The same court sentenced on 29th September two al Qaeda militants to death and jailed four others to prison terms ranging from five to ten years for the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole which killed 17 sailors.
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