A Yemeni judge sentenced two men, including one held in US custody, to death yesterday for orchestrating the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, and sentenced four others to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years.
Jamal al-Badawi, a 35-year-old Yemeni, and Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were both sentenced to death for plotting, preparing and involvement in the bombing, which was blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and killed 17 US sailors as their destroyer refueled in the southern Yemeni port of Aden.
PHOTO: AFP
Al-Badawi, who was in the heavily guarded court to hear his sentence along with four other Yemenis charged in relation to the bombing, would appeal the sentence, his brother, Mohamed al-Badawi, told reporters.
Al-Nashiri, believed to be the mastermind of the Oct. 12, 2000 bombing, was the only one of the six men convicted who was not in court as he is being held in US custody at an undisclosed location.
The US announced al-Nashiri's arrest in 2002. He was detained in the United Arab Emirates and transferred to US custody. US officials believe he is a close associate of Saudi-born bin Laden, who is believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US.
In addition to the Cole attack, al-Nashiri is suspected of helping direct the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The six men were all charged with belonging to al-Qaeda and playing roles in the attack on the Cole, which was carried out by suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa, both Yemenis, who rammed an explosives-laden boat into the destroyer.
Judge Najib al-Qaderi sentenced Fahd al-Qasa to 10 years in jail for filming the bombing, which left a gaping hole in the side of the destroyer, which was later repaired and returned to service.
The court has heard that al-Qasa had traveled to Afghanistan in 1997 to train at an al-Qaeda terrorist camp, but it was unclear how long he spent there before returning to Yemen, a tribal-dominated country located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
Maamoun Msouh received an eight-year prison term for delivering money used in preparing and executing the attack and playing a close role in assisting al-Badawi.
Ali Mohamed Saleh and Murad al-Sirouri were both sentenced to five years in prison for forging identification papers for al-Misawa, one of the suicide bombers.
All the men sentenced yesterday are expected to appeal their sentences within 15 days, according to al-Badawi's brother.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS