Suspects consider alleged plots Political Security’s scandal [Archives:2006/948/Front Page]
By: Adel Al-Khawlani
SANA'A, May 21 – During Sunday's hearing at State Security Specialized Penal Court (SSSPC), some of the 19 terrorist suspects shouted that alleged plots against U.S. intelligence and Yemeni officials, which Prosecution attributed to them, are Political Security's scandal.
Suspect No. 4 Abdullah Ubadi blamed Prosecution for not hunting U.S. collaborators like it does militants, saying Yemeni intelligence authorities are hesitant to name any U.S. agents.
“If Prosecution claims we committed a mistake by traveling to Iraq, it is advised to form a committee to explain our mistakes,” Ubadi noted. “Prosecution did not provide any new testimony against me.”
Ubadi urged Prosecution to release him, as it can transfer him to Aden Prison if he faces a sentence. Suspect Ali Al-Qurdi asked the court to transfer him to Aden Prison, while suspect No. 13 Ali Al-Barari pleaded that he was studying at Syria's Halab University on December 1, 2004 and returned to Yemen on January 18, 2005 prior to his capture.
Al-Barari said anyone jailed in Political Security Prison is forced to confess connections with Osama Bin Laden. He claimed compensation for being dismissed from the university where he was attending third-year classes in electronic engineering.
The suspects' defense team mentioned in their concluding appeals that the indictment against their clients is untrue, insisting the court clear their clients and compensate them for what they lost. They indicated that Prosecution has not added any new evidence to the indictment and that their clients' travel to Iraq to fight U.S. troops was the primary reason for their capture.
Defense advocates confirmed that fighting the Americans is mandatory for every Muslim, pointing out that Prosecution violated all judicial laws when it referred suspects for trial after one year's imprisonment.
Prosecution stated that the suspects confessed to the charges attributed to them, explaining that top suspect Ali Isyan summoned his accomplices to launch offensives on Western interests in Yemen and assassinate government officials loyal to the U.S. in retaliation for Abu Ali Al-Harithi's killing in Marib by a U.S. fighter.
Prosecution said it presented all seized explosives previously possessed by the suspects at this month's court trials and in March. It demanded suspects No. 18 and 19, Jalal Al-Qadas and Aqil Al-Quhali, stand trial for new evidence against them.
The SSSPC adjourned the case against Hizam Al-Mas and Khalid Al-Halilah, convicted of attempting to assassinate former U.S. Ambassador Edmund Hull, until June. Meanwhile, the prosecutor responded to the plea presented by the two convicts' lawyer and upheld the sentence.
In March, the court sentenced Al-Mas to 17 years and Al-Halilah to 18 years in jail after they were convicted of plotting to assassinate the former U.S. envoy while he was shopping on Hadda Street in Sana'a.
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