Posted on 02/27/2005 6:23:46 AM PST by knighthawk
The Sana'a appeals court upheld on Saturday morning a death sentence against Abdul-Rahim al-Nashiri in the case of attacking USS Cole destroyer off Aden seaport in October 2000.
The court, headed by Judge Saiyd Naji al-Qataa, also canceled the death verdict against Jamal al-Badawi to 15 years in prison. SABA reported. Last September, the Sana'a primary court had sentenced death verdict against al-Nashiri and al- Badawi. The attack on the USS Cole destroyer killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded 23 others.
Ping
I think that the guy whose sentance was commuted to 15 years (in a middle-eastern prison!) is the real loser here...
Looks like al-Badawi coughed up enough money to influence the Sana.
Court Quashes Death Verdict, Upholds Another Over Cole Bomb
Arab News ^ | 2/28/05 | Khaled Al-Mahdi
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1351923/posts
SANAA, 27 February 2005 — A Yemeni appeals court yesterday overturned the death sentence against one of the suspects convicted for the October 2000 bombing attack on the US Navy destroyer Cole, but upheld the death verdict against another.
The court, presided over by Judge Said Al-Qataa, commuted the death sentence pronounced by a lower court on Sept. 29 against Jamal Muhammad Al-Badawi, 30, to 15 years in jail. The three judges confirmed the death sentence against Abdul Raheem Al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the attack who was tried in absentia.
Defendants and their families broke into cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) after the ruling.
The prosecution had asked for maximum penalties for the six militants charged with the bombing. They were also accused of belonging to a terror network.
The prosecution had argued during the trial, which opened last June, that 38-year-old Nashiri was “the main bankroller of the attack.”
He is currently being held in the United States where he is expected to face separate legal procedures. He was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in October 2002 and handed over to Washington.
Born in Saudi Arabia of Yemeni descent, Nashiri was described at the time as Al-Qaeda’s chief for naval operations and its operations chief in the Gulf. He is also suspected of involvement in attacks against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 that killed 224 people, and in the October 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg off south Yemen in which one Bulgarian crewmember was killed and 12 others were wounded.
The appeals court reduced the sentence of Maamoun Ahmad Onswa from eight to five years and upheld the 10-year jail sentence handed to Fahd Muhammad Al-Qasaa.
The judges confirmed five-year prison terms for police officers Ali Muhammad Al-Muraqib and Murad Salih Al-Sorwri, turning down the request from the prosecutor general that their prison terms be increased to eight years. They were found guilty of providing the terrorists with forged identification documents.
Badawi’s commutation from the death penalty was greeted with cries of joy by his relatives who crammed into the courtroom. But the convict showed no sign of delight. “It is a verdict set to please the United States,” he said from the dock, denouncing the judge as an “agent” of America.
“We had been expecting greater clemency,” said Al-Qasaa’s brother Jamal.
Despite recognizing a “certain fairness” on the part of the court, he said: “These young men do not deserve the sentences against them given the lack of proof that they were involved in the USS Cole affair”.
The Cole was rammed by an explosives-laden boat piloted by two suicide bombers shortly after entering the Aden port for refueling on Oct. 12, 2000. Seventeen sailors aboard the vessel were killed and 39 injured in the explosion, which nearly sank the guided missile destroyer. The court last year named the suicide bombers as Ibrahim Al-Thour and Hassan Al-Khamri.
Early this month, Yemen’s appeals court stiffened sentences against 15 men found guilty of the Limburg bombing, transforming a 10-year prison term to a death sentence and upholding one death sentence.
What are we waiting for lets get this show on the road.......
Its been so long many americans don't even know what the cole is/was anymore......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.