|
Sana'a: Two Yemenis convicted of giving information about a false terror plot against Egypt by Yemen and financed by some of the Gulf countries were sentenced to death on Saturday.
Chaired by Judge Muhsen Alwan, the State Security Court passed a death sentence against Hamad Ali Hamad Al Dhahook, 50, and Abdul Aziz Hassan Al Hatbani, 45, for spying against Yemen and damaging its foreign relations and its political and diplomatic positions.
Both defendants refused the verdict and asked for an appeal.
On June 26, 2007, when the trial began, the prosecution accused Al Dhahook and Al Hatbani of having contacted a diplomat at the Egyptian embassy in Sana'a on March 7, 2007 and giving him untrue and misleading information.
The prosecutor said that the accused told the Egyptian diplomat that some of the Gulf countries were funding and training a terrorist group in Yemen to go to Egypt, with the knowledge of the Yemeni authorities, to carry out terrorist acts and strike the tourism sector in Egypt.
The two men denied the charges, saying they were fabricated.
The prosecutor said, at the time, that Al Dhahook had given the diplomat at the Egyptian embassy some documents containing information that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were funding and training a group of terrorists in Yemen with the purpose of sending them to Egypt to strike the tourism sector.
The prosecutor said that Al Dhahook had asked for money from the Egyptian diplomat in return for the information.
Al Dhahook previously said, in investigation minutes, that he was a member of the Saudi army and that he had been fired. His Saudi nationality was withdrawn from him before he was deported to Yemen in 1995. Al Hatbani was a member of the Yemeni army.
|
