Yemeni jailed for 12 years for trying to abduct Germans

Source: AFP 15/04/2010

SANAA — A Yemeni has been jailed for 12 years by a court in the capital Sanaa for the attempted kidnapping of four Germans in February last year, the defence ministry news website said on Wednesday.
Ahmed Salah Twayiman was convicted of carrying out the abduction bid against the four archaeologists, two of them women, in Maarib province east of Sanaa, the 26Sep.net website of the ministry's newspaper reported.
The sentence was handed down on Tuesday, the website added.
Only the intervention of escorting soldiers foiled the kidnap attempt against the four, the interior ministry said at the time.
Outside the major cities, Yemen's powerful tribes frequently carry out abductions of foreigners to try and secure bargaining counters in disputes with the central government. Of the 200 or so foreigners seized by the tribes over the past decade, all have been released without harm.
In June last year in the far north of Yemen, however, nine foreigners were seized by unknown parties amid sporadic fighting between the army and Zaidi Shiite rebels.
The bodies of two Germans and a South Korean were found soon afterwards. Five Germans and a Briton are still missing and the Sanaa government said on Monday that it was pressing efforts to secure the release of the six.