Yemen Charges U.S. Born Terror Imam
The AP reports:
Yemen put a U.S.-born radical cleric on trial in absentia Tuesday, accusing him and two other men of plotting to kill foreigners and being members of al-Qaida.
It was the first formal legal action by Yemen against Anwar al-Awlaki, and came as the country faces heavy pressure to crack down on the terror network following the interception of two mail bombs intercepted in Dubai and Britain last week.
Yemen's move isn't likely to affect a possible U.S. decision to itself charge the cleric, since Washington doesn't believe Yemen is reliable at holding its prisoners, especially after a number of high profile defendants were released into the custody of their tribes.
Prosecutor Ali al-Saneaa announced the charges against al-Awlaki as part of a trial against another man, Hisham Assem, who has been accused of killing a Frenchman in an Oct. 6 attack at an oil firm's compound where he worked as a security guard.
Assem, 19, was present in court, but al-Awlaki and a third suspect, Osman al-Awlaki, were charged in absentia. The hearing was held amid tight security measures at a courthouse in downtown San'a.
Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, is based in Yemen. U.S. investigators say e-mails link him to the Army psychiatrist accused of last year's killings at Fort Hood, Texas. They also say that he helped prepare Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused in the Christmas airline bombing attempt, and that he had links to the failed Times Square bombing.
The U.S. has put Al-Awlaki, whose English-language sermons advocating jihad, or holy war, have inspired a number of Western-born militants, on a list of militants it wants killed or captured.
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