Posted on 07/08/2006 7:03:40 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
SANAA - Yemen’s state security court on Saturday acquitted 19 suspected Al Qaeda militants, including five Saudis, of plotting to attack Americans in the country.
The presiding judge Mohammed al-Baadani ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case that the men had formed an armed gang to attack American citizens in Yemen.
When the trial began on February 22, the men were charged with planning to attack US citizens in Yemen on orders from the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Jordanian Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike on an Al Qaeda safe house in Iraq last month.
Prosecutors said the men had planned to bomb sites frequented by Americans living in Yemen, including a five-star hotel in the southern port city of Aden.
They said some of defendants had fought alongside militants in Iraq and that they returned from Iraq after Al Zarqawi gave them orders to carry out attacks in Yemen.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge of planning to target US citizens in Yemen, but six admitted to having fought US forces in Iraq.
The five Saudis, aged between 19 and 30, told the court that they had been arrested as they arrived in Yemen in January 2005 on their way to Iraq to join insurgents there.
Reading out the verdict, the chief judge said the men “should not have been prosecuted for their intention to go for Jihad (holy war).”
He added that the men were either outside Yemen or being detained in the country during 2004 and 2005 and, therefore, they could have not have jointly planned attacks.
After the verdict was announced, the defendants and their relatives shouted Allah-u-Akbar, or God is Greatest.
Prosecutor Khaled al-Mawri rejected the verdict and said the prosecution would appeal it.
“We have provided all evidence that convicts them. We’ll appeal your verdict,” al-Mawri told the judge.
During the trial, prosecutors displayed a cache of weapons, explosives and raw chemical material, claiming that they had been used by the group in manufacturing explosives.
The prosecutors said the material had been seized after police raided the homes of four of 12 Yemeni suspects standing trial in the case.
Among the four was the alleged leader of the group, Ali Abdullah Hussein al-Harthi, who admitted to possessing the explosives, but told the court he had used them for training insurgents in Iraq, not to attack Americans in Yemen.
Another key suspect, Yemeni Ammar Abdullah Fadhil, told the court he used the material himself against army convoys in Iraq and in training dozens of other young fighters in Iraq in their use.
Okie dokie. Sounds like the judge wants to join them.
Well there's a huge surprise. /sarcasm
...so that the "insurgents" could then use the explosives to attack Americans in Iraq.
WTF???
Double WTF???
And eight terrorists "escaped" from a Saudi prison before King Abdullah could give them amnesty if they would repent. And the insane NYT lefties can't imagine why we need to keep Gitmo open. Some Americans are too stupid to be free.
"All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge of planning to target US citizens in Yemen, but six admitted to having fought US forces in Iraq.
The five Saudis, aged between 19 and 30, told the court that they had been arrested as they arrived in Yemen in January 2005 on their way to Iraq to join insurgents there."
!?!!??!
This is the old, "We don't care what they do elsewhere rationale" practiced by many ME countries.
I sure hope we have some "mean people" lurking in Yemen that can fix this problem.
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