Two Sana’a ‘terrorists cells’ tried

The Sana’a criminal court, headed by Judge Mohsin Alwan, Trial began on Monday for a group of 15 people alleged to be the “second Sana’a terrorist cell.” Among the defendants are two women and a journalist. 

In the hearing, the prosecution stated that the seventh defendant Ismael al-Shami received 4,000 Saudi Ryals from the Al-Houthi followers transferred through his mother to buy communication kits for the rebels.  He has also been accused of donating $500 to the Al-Houthi movement.

The eighth defendant, Ali Ibrahim Ali al-Kohlani, confessed to having given medication to Al-Houthi followers of an estimated value of YR50,000.  

Al-Kohlani is a physician at a military hospital and said in his confession that he is morally and ethically obligated to medically treat victims on both sides of any conflict.  The confession of the eleventh defendant, a woman named Mona Ghalib, was read in court, stating that she had met Abdul-Karim al-Khaiwani a number of times. In one of the meetings she brought her nephew, one of Al-Houthi followers, who handed al-Khaiwani a flash disk containing information about the war in Sa’ada.

She also provided him with an interview with Abdul-Malek al-Houthi to deliver to media sources that she had not conducted. The judge then asked Mona how true the account of the prosecution was and she replied that 50 percent of it was true. She claims to have signed the confession because she was afraid of jail.  

Also on Monday, the appeals court held a trial for the first Sana’a “terrorist cell,” which consists of 36 people, including one woman. A preliminary sentence was issued against them on October 22nd 2006 that detailed the execution of defendant Ibrahim Mohammed Abdullah Sharaf al-Din; ten years imprisonment for 12 defendants, eight years imprisonment for 7 defendants and three years imprisonment for 6 defendants. 

The prosecution has charged them with forming armed gangs and committing acts of destruction against national interests and attacking military figures. The charged defendants were found with weapons, destructive communications kits and counterfeit IDs.

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