YEMEN: IRANIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG-TRAFFICKING

a court in Sanaa, Yemen, sentenced an Iranian to death for drug trafficking and imposed 25-year prison sentences each on 11 other Iranians and a Pakistani, officials said.
Ayub Mohamed Houd, 33, who faces the death penalty, and his 12 accomplices were found guilty of bringing 1.5 tonnes of hashish into Yemeni territorial waters, hidden in the hold of a ship coming from Iran.
The prosecution said the 13 men were arrested by a US navy warship, which found the drugs on board their boat. They were handed over to the Yemeni authorities after the destruction of all but 20kg of drugs.
At the opening of the trial on October 12, the men, whose statements in Farsi were translated into Arabic, denied the charges and said the US sailors threw a large quantity of fish into the sea from the hold.