A Yemeni court sentenced to death a Yemeni tribesman...

A Yemeni court sentenced to death a Yemeni tribesman for kidnapping a German man and holding him hostage for two weeks. The ruling by the appeals court, which specialises in kidnapping and terrorism cases, was harsher than a jail term of 25 years passed by a lower court against Ahmad Nasser al-Zaydi in December 2001.
The court upheld 20-year prison terms in absentia against three fugitive accomplices in the abduction of 50-year-old Carl Lehrner in November 2001.
Zaydi, unemployed and in his 30s, had earlier said he acted to protest against his living conditions. He can appeal against the death sentence to Yemen's supreme court.
Scores of tourists and foreigners working in this poor Arab country, plagued by lawlessness and tribal violence, have been kidnapped in recent years, often by disgruntled tribesmen seeking better state services and regional infrastructure, or the release of jailed relatives.