Progress in the trial of UK Embassy Bombing Final Hearing Today [Archives:2001/28/Front Page]

The trial of the four defendants of the UK embassy bombing attack will be resumed today. The accused Abu baker Jayol, Ahmad Masood, Salam Salem and Anees Taher will present their final defence today. After that Mr. Justice Mohsen Alwan will give his ruling. The judge asked security men and the prosecution on the last Saturday to let the accused present all the defence arguments in writing today. The defendants said they had nothing to add. Jayol said he would deal with the Sharaee aspect of the case rather than the legal aspect implying that he does not recognize the law.
In the session, the representative of the UK embassy, a Yemeni national, said the embassy will engage a lawyer to represent it in the case.
In the previous two sessions as mentioned in the prosecution investigation reports Ahmad Masood confessed about the involvement of the Libyan Consul who masterminded and paid $2000 to carry it out. Masood also quoted Jayol who reportedly told him that Libya was to finance their operations in targeting US establishments in Yemen. Massod denied all these reports in the court and said he was coerced to give all these confessions. He said the purpose was to embroil Jayol and drag him into the liitiigation.
The Libyan embassy, on its part, denied all these allegations and described them as baseless and nonsensical.
Masood has been trying during the 9 sessions of the trial to mislead the court and get the ex-Minister of interior, Hussein Arab involved in the case. In the beginning he said that the minister had been informed about the bombing attacks in Aden early this year. Then, he said the Minister knew about the attack on his house beforehand and that one of his escorts was innvolved in the operation.

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