YEMEN: DEATH SENTENCE CONFIRMED

October 20, 2008: a Yemen court of appeal confirmed a death sentence on espionage charges against a Saudi who had been stripped of his citizenship, while it acquitted a Yemeni national. Hamad al-Dhahouk, a former Saudi soldier of Yemeni origin, and Abdul Aziz al-Hatbani, an officer in Yemen's army, were both sentenced to death in February by a court specialised in handling terrorism cases.
They were convicted of passing false information to the Egyptian embassy in Sanaa claiming that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were financing a terrorist cell in Yemen to attack tourists in Egypt, with the knowledge of the Yemeni government.
The court found "the evidence provided was valid against" Dhahouk, 50, whose Saudi citizenship was revoked in 1995. Hatbani, on the other hand, was set free. At their initial trial, which began in June 2007, the prosecution accused Dhahouk of passing documents containing the false information to the Egyptian embassy and demanding money in return. Dhahouk said during interrogation that he had been a soldier in Saudi Arabia but was expelled from the country in 1995 during a visit by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He claimed that the Saudi authorities told him "Go with your president," and revoked his Saudi citizenship. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 20/10/2008)