Trial of 12 Islamist fanatics to continue Wednesday:Jarallah’s assassin faced with charges [Archives:2003/633/Front Page]

The court of Sana'a decided Saturday to hold the fourth session of the trial of the assassin of Jarallah Omar and other 11 defendants next Wednesday, while journalists were denied access to the court hall, except the journalists of the government-run media. Saturday's session was held under stiff security measures as people were kept 100 meters away from the court premises.
During the hearing, the prosecutors, Saeed al-Akel faced Ali Ahamd Jarallah, assassin of Jarallah Omar and other defendants with their charges. Judge Abdulrahamn Jahaf decided to postpone the trial till next Wednesday so as to give the advocates of the defendants a chance to study the file of the charges and the prosecution to provide more evidence against the suspects. The court also decided that two of the suspects should be shown to a specialist to specify their ages as the advocates said that two of the suspects were younger than 18 and that, according to law, they should not be tried. However, advocate Hussein Ali Nasr told the Yemen Times that he was not allowed to talk to two of his clients; their relatives also complained they could not see their prisoners.
The trial of Abed al-Kamil, killer of three US doctors in Jiblah, Ibb, started April 20th simultaneously with the trial of Ali Jarallah in Sana'a.
While the murderer of the US doctors confessed his crime, his friend refused to comment on the charges of the prosecution that he killed the Yemeni Socialist Party Assistant Secretary General while participating in the inaugural ceremony of the Islah party December 28, 2002. Ali Jarallah said he would not speak unless he gets an advocate to defend him. Al-Kamil said that he killed the US doctors because they were missionaries and to take revenge against the conversion of some Muslims into Christianity. He said he went to Jiblah to study there in 2001 and to arrange for the operation in coordination with his friend Ali Jarallah. He pointed out that they agreed that he would kill the missionaries and his friend and others would kill the secular-minded politicians and intellectuals. The court judge in Jiblah, Abdulrakeeb al-Nabhani appointed an advocate for the defendant and postponed the next hearing till next Wednesday.
After hearing the charges of killing Jarallah Omar and attempting to kill Saeed Shmasan of Islah and setting up an armed gang to kill the so-called secular-minded politicians and intellectuals, Ali Jarallah in the first two hearings refused to comment and demand that he should have the right in having an advocate, appointed by him after coordination with his relatives. He said that the prosecution did not inform him that he would go to court. He described that trial in this way as a legal scandal and an electoral propaganda. The judge ordered the prosecution to give him the right to defend himself in the first hearing but in the next on, the defendant said that nothing happened and that he could contact his family to get an advocate. The prosecutor read his confessions that he killed Jarallah as he was secular and harmful to Islam and that he was planning to kill Kasim Salam of Ba'ath party and Abdulamalik al-Mikhlafi of the Nasserite party and others. But the defendant did not comment. He said he had many enemies of the political forces and that his case is very sensitive. “Why are you afraid? Is there anything that make you afraid?”, he questioned the prosecutor. This shows that the trial might reveal many secrets behind the assassination and take more time.
The family of Jarallah Omar refused to attend the trial as the socialist and other opposition parties denounced the trial and said it was an electoral propaganda and that the investigation into the assassination has not yet completed; they accused the government to trying to bury the compliance behind this political crime. A statement issued by the opposition said that running the trial in such a hasty way helps hide the political aims behind this crime of assassination and veiling the plans of killings that target democracy at large. What makes such charges clear is that the government published last Thursday a list of 31 persons and said that they were the target of the gang.
In the second hearing of the trial of Ali Jarallah , the court presented 11 other suspects, most of them being school and university students. They were charged with being members of this gang that was planning to carry out terrorist operations against a number of people. However, they strongly denied such charges and some of them said they did not know Ali Jarallah. They said they were tortured by the intelligence officers and demanded an immediate release on bail and to have advocates to defend them. The list of this gang includes:
1- Maymoun Mojahid al-Sihdad (17)
2- Hisham al-Sane'a(29)
3- Yahiya Naser Malik(27)
4- Mohammed Lutuf Amer(21)
5- Naser Ali Ahmad Hamza(30)
6- Ahmad Ali Hussein(20)
7- Abdulkareem Ali Al-Qaefi(20)
8- Mohammed Yahia Saleh Allwan(25)
9- Lutf Mohammed Al-Hanbasy(20)
10- Nabeel Ali Hussein(17)
11- Mohammed Ahmad al-Nihmi(18)
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