Yemeni court jails three Al-Qaeda suspects

Source: AFP, 07/12/2010
ADEN, Yemen — A court in Yemen's southern province of Hadramawt has sentenced three suspected Al-Qaeda members to jail terms ranging from four to six years, a judicial source told AFP on Monday.

A court specialising in terrorism cases in the provincial capital Mukalla sentenced Saleh Jaber, a Yemeni, to six years in prison, while Mohammed Batarfi, also a Yemeni, and Saudi national Salem bin Massud were both sentenced to four years in prison, the source said.

The three men were accused of possessing arms and forming a group to carry out attacks against oil installations and the security forces.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is battling a resurgence by the jihadists, a sporadic Shiite rebellion in the north and separatist unrest in the south of the country.