Yemen succumbs to US pressure

Mohammed al Qadhi, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: May 19. 2008 12:31AM UAE / May 18. 2008 8:31PM GMT

SANA'A // Authorities in Yemen, concerned about charges of supporting terrorism, yesterday ordered the arrest of Jaber Elbaneh, who is on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list.

Saeed al Akil, the prosecutor, asked that Mohammed al Hakimi, the judge, take Elbaneh, who is also named Jabr al Banna, into custody.

Mr Akil said Elbaneh had already been convicted and therefore – under the law – should be jailed. Elbaneh had attended yesterday’s hearing.

The US Embassy in Sana’a welcomed the decision. “The arrest of Jabr al Banna is an important first step,” said a diplomatic source at the US Embassy who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

“We have been waiting for the arrest of this wanted terrorist for a long time. Al Banna’s arrest sends the right message that terrorists will be held accountable for their crimes,” the official said.

Elbaneh surprised all – even the judges and prosecutors – this year when he attended a court hearing in February in which he and 22 others were appealing a conviction on charges they attacked oil facilities.

The 41-year-old Yemeni entered the courtroom surrounded by four bodyguards and introduced himself to the judge.

“I am Jaber Elbaneh and was sentenced to 10 years in this case and three years before for another case. I have committed no crimes either in Yemen or the US. I escaped from the intelligence jail and surrendered to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.” He then walked out of the courtroom. He attended the fifth hearing on April 20, but the prosecution did not ask that he be arrested at that time.

By allowing Elbaneh to leave, the Yemeni regime sent a strong message to the United States about what Washington can expect when it comes to extradition requests, said Mohammed al Sabri, who follows the Yemen-US relationship.

Since February, Elbaneh has moved freely within the country. However, during yesterday’s hearing, the sixth appeals session, the court decided to put Elbaneh in jail. Another hearing will be held on June 1.

Political observers believe the decision was taken in response to constant pressure from Washington, which has exercised considerable pressure on Sana’a to extradite Elbaneh and Jamal al Badwi, who was convicted in 2004 of plotting and helping carry out the USS Cole bombing in the port of Aden on Oct 12 2000. He received a death sentence in absentia, which was commuted to 15 years in prison.

Mr Sabri said it was clear the court’s decision was in response to US pressure.

“It was irresponsible behaviour on the part of the Yemeni government when it decided to let Elbaneh free because not only does it harm the US, but it also tarnishes the image of Yemen, its law and judiciary.

“The Yemeni government committed a grave mistake in dealing with al Qa’eda and terrorism this way and the government understands this well. It is a very sensitive issue and has serious international and regional consequences.”

Washington expressed dismay when Badwi was released in October. The Yemeni government, however, said Badwi “was never a free man”.

Since his release, the United States has demanded his extradition, which Abu Bakr al Qirbi, Yemen’s foreign minister, has said is not possible. Yemen’s constitution does not allow the extradition of Yemeni citizens. The United States has tried to pressure Yemen. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US agency that distributes foreign aid based on countries’ track records for good government, halted a US$20.6 million (Dh75.2 million) grant to Yemen. Then, it postponed a forum scheduled to be held in Yemen in December.

On March 20, three mortars missed the US Embassy and crashed into a nearby high school for girls, killing three students and a security guard.

Following the attacks, the US government ordered all non-emergency staff and their families out of Yemen.

Robert Mueller, the FBI director, paid a visit to Yemen on April 9 to investigate the attacks and to renew a request for the extradition of Badwi, according to an official within the US Embassy.

The US state department report on terrorism in Yemen in 2007 was also very critical.

“Despite United States pressure, Yemen continued to implement a surrender program with lenient requirements for terrorists it could not apprehend, which often led to their relatively lax incarceration,” the report said.

“Yemen also released all returned Guantanamo detainees after short periods of assessment and rehabilitation, into a government monitoring program that lacked strict monitoring measures. USS Cole bomber Jamal al Badawi’s continued incarceration remained uncertain at the end of 2007,” it said.

Elbaneh, a former resident of Lackawanna, New York, is one of the most wanted terrorists in the United States, where he is charged with providing material support to a terrorist organisation and conspiring to provide material support, specifically to al Qa’eda.

In May 2003, US prosecutors charged Elbaneh, a Yemeni-American, in absentia with conspiring with a group known as the “Lackawanna Six” to provide material support or resources to al Qa’eda.

The United States offered a US$5 million bounty for information leading to his arrest. “This is an expected outcome of an unbalanced and ambiguous Yemen-US co-operation in terrorism fight,” said Mr Sabri, the analyst, referring to the arrest of Elbaneh. “The Yemeni authorities handled this issue away from constitutional agencies and the public opinion.

“The Americans were mistaken in agreeing to deal in closed rooms with such a serious issue,” he said.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has been a strong ally to the United States in its “war on terror”, receiving both praise and support for its co-operation in rounding up al Qa’eda militants. The relationship between al Qa’eda militants and Yemeni authorities “is very sophisticated and requires that Yemen and the US put aside their traditional method in dealing with this issue before a catastrophe takes place,” Mr Sabri said.

malqadhi@thenational.ae