Death sentence against Aden sporting club bomber

By Nasser Arrabyee/11/12/2010
A Yemeni young man was sentenced to death on Saturday after being convicted of bombing a football club in the southern city of Aden where five people were killed and 17 others injured last October.

Chaired by Judge Mohammed Ahmed Al Abyadh, the State Security Court in Aden passed down the death sentence against Fares Abdullah Saleh, 25, who was accused of implementing two successive bombings in Al Wahada sporting club in Aden on October 11th.

The court also sentenced the second accused, Raed Abdullah Saleh, (brother of Fares) to five years in prison and acquitted three others including the second brother, Ali.
The two brothers and the two other men were accused of helping Fares to carrying out the bombings against the sporting facility.

The two bombings, which took place on October 11th, failed to obstruct the regional football tournament which Yemen successfully hosted in the southern cities of Aden and Abyan from 22 Novemeber to 5 December this year.

The convict number 1, Fares, commented on the verdict by saying, “It’s unjust ruling.”
After the verdict was issued, angry demonstrators from Al Dhale’e where Fares originally comes from, tried to block the main road between Sana’a and Aden in protest over the death sentence against Fares. The security forces dispersed the demonstrators who support the southern separatist movement.

Meanwhile, Hassan Ba Awom, one of the leaders of the separatist movement, and three of his aides were released after spending less than month in prison. Ba Awom and his aides were put on prison only two days before the football tournament, Gulf 20, started last November 22. The government accused them of trying to foil the tournament.

Separately, 18 Al Qaeda suspects were sentenced on Saturday to prison in Sana’a and Mukalla.

The Sana’a State Security Court of appeal upheld a prison sentence against six of them for a period ranging between 7 to 10 years. The same court of Mukalla, in Hudhrmout province, sentenced 12 Al Qaeda suspects to prison terms ranging between 4 to 7 years.