Sana'a, Yemen - A state security court in Sana'a sentenced
three Shiite rebels to up to 12 years in prison on Tuesday after
convicting them of forming an armed gang, a judicial source said.
Court Chief Justice Muhssein Alwan convicted the three men of
'forming an armed gang and resisting authorities' in order to support
the Shiite rebellion in the north-western province of Saada in 2007,
the source told the German Press Agency dpa.
Murtadha al-Khaled, who was tried in absentia, received a 12-year
jail sentence and Muadh al-Mutawakil was sentenced to 10 years in
prison while the third convicted accomplice, Murtadha al-Murtadha,
got a three-year jail term, the source said.
The case is the latest in a series of trials involving Shiite
rebels, who have fought against army forces in restive Saada since
2004.
Fighting between army forces and the rebels, known as Houthis and
who belong to the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, has flared
intermittently in Saada since mid-2004, leaving hundreds of soldiers
and insurgents dead.
Last week, one soldier and three rebels were killed in clashes in
Saada, some 230 kilometres north of the capital Sana'a.
The rebels are led by the Shiite rebel leader Abdul-Malik
al-Houthi.
In June 2007, the government and al-Houthi signed a Qatari-
sponsored peace agreement, but tensions have since been rising
between his followers and the government forces in Saada.
Authorities have accused the rebels of trying to reinstall the
rule of Shiite imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in
northern Yemen in 1962.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story