Yemeni Court Sentences 4 Al-Qaeda-Affiliated Saudis to Death
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A court in Yemen’s capital of Sana’a sentenced to death four Saudis convicted of being al Qaeda members and beheading 14 Yemeni soldiers in a 2014 attack.
"The criminal court in charge of terrorism cases in Sana’a on Sunday sentenced four Saudi nationals to death for belonging to al Qaeda and killing and beheading 14 soldiers of the 134th Brigade," Reuters quoted Yemen’s al-Masirah TV as reporting.
The 2014 attack was one of many carried out by the so-called Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on state security targets in the period preceding Yemen's descent into full blown war involving Saudi Arabia.
The court ordered for the men to be executed in public and in the presence of the families of those killed, the report said.
AQAP was formed by the merger of the Saudi and Yemeni wings of al Qaeda in 2009.
Since March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition has been pounding Yemen and attacking the Houthi Ansarullah movement to try to restore the government of former fugitive president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, carrying out thousands of air raids on the impoverished nation.
Despite more than two years of heavy fighting, the Houthis, who seized control of Sana’a in September 2014, have maintained control over the most populated provinces.
According to Yemen’s Legal Center of Rights and Development, the Saudi campaign has claimed the lives of over 12,000 Yemenis and left more than 20,000 others wounded.