Yemen sentences ‘Mossad spy’ to death

A Yemeni court sentences an activist to death and hands jail sentences to two others persons who worked for Israeli intelligence services.

The court convicted the three men of establishing direct contacts with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert via email and offering to collaborate with the Israeli Mossad, Reuters reported on Monday.

“This is an unfair ruling,” shouted Bassam al-Haidari, 26, when judge Mohsen Elwan sentenced him to death.

The judge sentenced another defendant, Ammar al-Rimi, 23, to five years in jail and Ali al-Mahfal, 24, to three years.

“The court has found that the evidence is reliable and all the charges in the prosecution report are correct,” Elwan said.

The suspected men denied the charges, saying that an officer they had a dispute with had fabricated the charges.

They vowed to appeal against the ruling.

“I seek God’s help against you,” Raimi told the judge.

The men, operating in the name of a group calling itself Islamic Jihad, went on trial in January on charges of demanding money from the embassies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

They were convicted of twin suicide car bombings on the US embassy in September — the biggest militant operation in the Arab state — which left 19 people dead.

However, a Yemeni group claimed to have links with al-Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Yemen is among the many Arab countries that regard Israel as an enemy for occupying Arab land. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the country joined the US-led war against terrorism.