– 13 ISLAMISTS ON TRIAL IN YEMEN

A “terror”-related cases of 13 Islamists accused of belonging to an armed group and attacking soldiers in the south was opened in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, on Monday 06/01/2009. .

The accused – seven of whom are being tried in absentia – are suspected of launching gun and bomb attacks against police and military positions and government installations.

One policeman was killed and several other members of the security forces were wounded in the attacks the defendants are accused of carrying out between 2007 and April this year, according to the charges read out in court.The six defendants present denied the charges and the judge adjourned the heating until June 8, an AFP journalist said.

The trial is taking place amid sporadic secessionist unrest in southern Yemen, an independent country until reunification with the north in 1990.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, has been the scene of a string of attacks claimed by the network against oil facilities, security forces and foreign targets including the USA Embassy (see – Sanaa 03.18.08 ).

 

 

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