Two sentenced to death for attack on USS Cole, reports Peter Willems from Sanaa Last week, a Yemeni court sentenced two suspects to death and four others to 5-10 year prison terms after they were found guilty of being involved in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Jamal Al-Badawi, a Yemeni, received the death penalty for taking part in planning and preparing the attack, including securing safe houses for the suicide bombers and acquiring the boat that rammed into the side of the United States warship. Saudi-born Abdul-Rahim Al-Nashiri, believed to be the mastermind behind the attack and also sentenced to death, was tried in absentia. Thought to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden, Al-Nashiri was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2002 and handed over to US officials and is currently being held by US authorities in an undisclosed location. He is also believed to have been connected with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The five defendants chanted "God is Great" when Judge Najib Al-Qaderi read the sentences in a courthouse in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. After he heard his sentence, Al-Badawi yelled out, "These are American sentences. The judge and the entire Yemeni government are tools in the hands of the Americans." The six defendants were charged with being members of Al- Qaeda. Fahd Al-Qasa, believed to have travelled to Afghanistan in 1997 to join an Al-Qaeda training camp, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for filming the attack. Maamoun Msouh, charged for assisting Al-Badawi and handling money for the bombing, received an eight-year jail term, while Ali Mohamed Saleh and Murad Al-Sirouri were sentenced to five years in prison for forging documents for one of the attackers. Attorneys representing the defendants said that they will appeal the case. "We will appeal for sure because there is no evidence," defence lawyer Abdul-Aziz Al-Samawi told Al-Ahram Weekly. "It was unfair by all international standards because the sentences did not relate to the evidence." The USS Cole was attacked in October 2000 as it was refuelling at the port of Aden. Two men approached the destroyer in a dinghy loaded with 500 pounds of explosives killing 17 US sailors and wounding 33 others when the explosives were detonated. Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden and once seen as being tolerant to Islamist militants, joined the US-led fight against terrorism after the attacks in New York and Washington, DC, on 11 September 2001. Yemeni security forces have rounded up hundreds of suspects. In August, 15 suspects were given sentences ranging from three years in prison to the death penalty for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks and being involved in the bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg in 2002. The US has worked closely with Yemen, providing military training and equipment. Yemen developed its first coast guard unit to patrol its ports and coastline this year. Last spring, the US handed over seven gunboats to help boost Yemen's ability to protect its territorial waters, and last summer the US government announced that US warships will refuel again this year since security has improved at the port of Aden. A month ago, the US lifted a 14-year ban on selling arms to Yemen. The ban was imposed on Yemen because it had refused to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990. "This will assist Yemen to fight against terrorism," said Gazem Alaghbari, head of the Europe Department at the Yemeni Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We will concentrate on using the equipment to help fight terrorism." Foreign diplomats in Yemen are concerned about the country's vulnerability to terrorist attacks, however. Huge swathes of Yemen's rural areas are controlled by tribal leaders, and weapons are easily available throughout the country. Last month, Yemeni forces defeated a rebel group in the north of the country, killing Hussein Al-Houthi -- an anti- American militant Islamist cleric who led a terrorist group. He was accused of establishing unlicensed religious schools, organising violent anti-US and anti-Israeli protests, attacking government buildings and security forces and forming an armed militant group. The battle lasted for nearly three months with a death toll reported to have reached a total of more than 1,000. In recent weeks, the threat of terrorism has increased with terrorist attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Indonesia. Some fear that Yemen may be targeted once again. "Certainly there is more violence around the world today," said one Yemeni MP. "We are in a world war against violence, so all countries, including our own, are vulnerable because it is a war against violent groups worldwide."
