SANAA, 14 February 2006 — The suspected second-in-command of the Al-Qaeda terror network in Yemen, Mohammed Hamdi Al-Ahdal, went on trial at a state security court in Sanaa yesterday.
Al-Ahdal, 35, was accused by the prosecution of forming an armed gang to carry out criminal acts targeting Western interests, and of collecting money to fund these operations.
Prosecutors told the court that Al-Ahdal had received up to $50,000 from Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden to finance the network’s operations in Yemen and to give aid for families of detained members of the group.
They said he confessed during interrogations that he had received $142,000 from a fellow Al-Qaeda man identified as Abu-Omar Al-Usaimi.
Al-Ahdal rejected the charges, saying they were “big lies.” The trial was adjourned until Feb. 27.
A tribesman named Ghalib Al-Zaidi, accused of sheltering Al-Ahdal in a mountainous area in the northeastern province of Marib, was also brought to trial yesterday.
Al-Ahdal, also known as Abu Asim, was arrested in 2003 and is suspected of involvement in the Oct. 12, 2000 suicide attack on the US Navy destroyer USS Cole in Aden, which killed 17 American sailors.
Yemeni authorities believe that Al-Ahdal was the deputy of Ali Qaed Sinan Al-Harthi, alias Abu Ali Al-Harthi, who was killed in a November 2002 CIA missile attack in eastern Yemen.
Yemeni officials have described Harthi as the top Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen.
