Yemen state security court jails three Shiite rebels

May 12, 2009, 16:04 GMT

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.