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Yemeni court sentences mosque attacker to death

Other News Materials 21 June 2008 17:04 (UTC +04:00)

A Yemeni court on Saturday sentenced to death a man who killed ten people in a shooting rampage outside a mosque in north-western Yemen on May 30.

Abdullah Saleh al-Kohali, 26, confessed to the crime during the trial in Amran, some 70 kilometres north of the capital Sana'a, reported dpa.

When the trial began on June 8, he said he intended to avenge his honour by killing a man sexually involved with his sister. He said the main target of his shooting was a fellow clansman identified as Belal Qassim al-Kohali.

"He got my sister pregnant three times," the defendant said.

Belal was among six worshippers who died on the spot after the attacker opened fire outside a small village mosque during weekly prayers on May 30. Four other people died later of wounds they sustained.

Judges refused the defendant's lawyers arguments that he was mentally unstable.

The man would be executed by a firing squad if the sentence confirmed by the appeal court, prosecutors said.

The court also ordered the convict to pay 5.7 million riyals (about 28,700 dollars) in compensation to the 15 people injured in the attack.

Officials have said the assailant opened fire from a machinegun as worshippers were performing the prayers outside the mosque in the Bait al-Aqari village of Kohal district in Amran.

Attacks at mosques are not unusual in this impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

In the most recent attack, 16 people were killed and scores injured after a booby-trapped motorcycle blew up outside a mosque after the weekly prayers in north-western Saada province on May 2. dpa kal mga

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