Yemeni court condemns 10 more Shiites to death (Roundup)

Oct 20, 2009, 12:20 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court sentenced 10 Shiite rebels to death and gave five others 15-year jail terms on Tuesday.

This is the latest in a series of trials of Shiite insurgents fighting government forces in north-western the Arab country.

The defendants were convicted of forming a 'terrorist group' and carrying out attacks against security forces and the army in Bani- Hushaish district, some 30 kilometres north of Sana'a, last year.

Presiding judge Muhssein Alwan said the court found the evidence against the defendants was 'reliable enough to convict them.'

He said the defendants had used machine guns, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades in the attacks.

After he read out the verdicts, the convicts shouted the slogan used by the Shiite rebels, know as Houthis, in the northern province of Saada: 'Death to America, death to Israel, curse on Jews and victory to Islam.'

The defendants refused to appeal the verdicts calling the court and judges as illegitimate.

The sentences come three days after the court handed down death sentences on another group from Bani-Hushaish over the same charges. It condemned nine others to jail terms of up to 12 years in prison.

In July, the court sentenced 10 members of the Bani-Hushaish group to death in two separate cases, and gave 13 others jail terms of up to 15 years.

Fighting between the army and the Shiite rebels has flared intermittently in Saada since mid-2004, leaving hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead. The rebels belong to the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam.

The defendants were among 190 insurgents captured by security forces during the clashes in Bani-Hushaish that began in May 2008 and went on for about three months.

Prosecutors have said the men were loyal to leading rebel Abdul- Malik al-Houthi, who leads thousands of Shiite insurgents fighting army troops in Saada on the borders with Saudi Arabia.

Government forces began a massive attack on the Houthis' strongholds in Saada on August 11, and authorities have vowed to continue until the rebels give up.

Hundreds of insurgents, troops and civilians have been killed during the past two months. Around 150,000 people were forced to leave their villages, according to UN estimates.

Authorities accuse the rebels of trying to reinstall the rule of Shiite imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

Houthis say they are in revolt against government corruption and the Yemeni alliance with the United States.