A Yemeni court has upheld lower court sentences of death for an alleged spy for Israel and jail terms for two others, convicted of supposedly trying to work for Israeli intelligence. The original sentences were handed down last year.
The two other men had been sentenced to five and three years in prison, but the appeals court decided both men will serve three years.
The three were convicted of writing to outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and offering to spy for Israel. All three denied the charges, and Bassam al-Haidari, who was sentenced to death, yelled after the court decision, “This is an unfair ruling. You have sentenced me without any proof of these accusations.”
He allegedly wrote, “We are the Organization of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything." Prosecutors testified that the Prime Minister wrote back to al-Haidari, “"We are ready to support you to become an obstacle in the Middle East. We will support you as an agent.”
The likelihood that a prime minister of Israel would personally reply, especially by e-mail, is virtually nil. Israel has said the whole case is “totally ridiculous.”
The three men were arrested last summer for spreading false reports that the Organization of Islamic Jihad group carried out an attack on the United States embassy in Yemen that killed 19 people. Al-Qaeda later took responsibility for the twin bombings.
The defendants claimed that the charges against them were fabricated by a security officer who had a personal vendetta against them. They also supposedly then attempted to extort money from the Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates embassies in Sana'a.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that the defendants were part of a “terrorist cell" linked to Israel's intelligence services.