SANAA, 7 June 2004 — A court yesterday adjourned by one month the trial of 11 suspects accused of involvement in the October 2000 suicide attack on the US destroyer USS Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, court officials said.
“The court adjourned the trial until July 6 for more investigation,” an official at the Sanaa penal court told Arab News. “The court has not yet received the complete files of the accused,” he said.
Amid massive security, the 11 suspected militants were brought to the closed session at the courthouse where the prosecution requested another 45 days to pursue inquiries.
Judge Ahmad Muhammad Al-Jarmuzi agreed to adjourn the trial by only 30 days and extended the custody order on the suspects, the official said.
Among the defendants appeared in the court yesterday were Jamal Muhammad Al-Badawi and Fahd Al-Qasei, two main suspects charged with masterminding the attack, prosecution sources said.
Seventeen US sailors were killed and 38 wounded when two suicide bombers attacked the warship in October 2000.
Yemeni officials have said the trial has been repeatedly delayed by US insistence it be preceded by the arrest of all suspects in the case.
The brief opening yesterday followed the start on May 29 of the trial of 15 Yemenis charged with terrorist acts, including the October 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg, off southern Yemen.
A newspaper reported last week that a US delegation, including lawyers and representatives of the Justice Department, had arrived in Yemen for the trial.
The delegation was to follow “the last phase of an investigation by the prosecution with those accused in the USS Cole explosion” and “to assist in the (trial) process,” the official September 26 weekly reported.
Interior Minister Rashad Al-Alami said recently the Cole case had been kept separate to other attacks that plagued the country in recent years. The delay is linked to the investigation because some of the accused were at large before being captured.
“Others accused were arrested in other countries,” Alami was quoted as saying.
The minister, who denied there was any “disagreement” on the Cole case between his country and the United States, said the “process will take place in respect of the constitution and Yemeni law.”
Frances Townsend, deputy assistant to the US president and deputy national security adviser for fighting terrorism, told officials during a visit to Yemen last month that Washington was “keen on respecting Yemeni laws and the Yemeni constitution,” according to the official Saba news agency.
The Limburg trial resumed last Tuesday with defense lawyers arguing the prosecution’s case was flawed. They denounced the fact a cache of arms and explosives were immediately displayed before the court as evidence against the defendants.
“The court should first hear the accused and the pleas by the defense,” before presenting material evidence, one of the lawyers, Abdul Malak Samawi, told the court.
But presenting evidence so soon is like “intimidating the accused and exercising pressure on them,” he said.
Another of the lawyers, Naji Allaw, also condemned “the hegemony of the prosecution for the process thus far” while his colleague, Khaled Al-Anzi, warned against the risk of a “pre-determined verdict.”
The lawyers also requested their clients’ files to prepare their defenses
— Additional input by agencies
