YEMEN: AL-QAEDA SUSPECT SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER ATTACKS

An al-Qaeda operative was sentenced to death by a state security court in Sana'a for his role in seven attacks on oil facilities and police targets in southern Yemen which killed two policemen.
Described by prosecutors as a bomb-maker for al-Qaeda, Saleh al-Shawish was convicted of making explosive devices used in seven attacks including a suicide car bombing on the police compound in Hadharmout province in July 2008.
The court also convicted al-Shawish of blowing up an oil pipeline run by the French oil firm Total in Hadramout in March 2008.
During the trial, that began on September 21, al-Shawish confessed to the charges and asked the court to make his trial swift.
After the verdict was pronounced on Monday, the convict refused to register an appeal against it.
'This is not your ruling, this is a ready-made ruling from the Political Security (intelligence),' al-Shawish shouted at the court's chief judge Muhssein Alwan as he pronounced the verdict.