JAIL VERDICTS AGAINST SABOTAGE GANG IN YEMEN

SANA'A, Jan. 17 (Saba) - The First Instance Court in Yemen passed on
Sunday sentences ranging from five to ten yeas in prison on the 12th
sabotage group of Bani Hushaish, the GPC-run al-Motamar.net reported
on Sunday.

The verdict comes among a series of rulings delivered last year for
the subversive groups charged with supporting the north-based
insurgency of al-Houthi.

Indictments also included that the members looted the people's
properties and destroyed military equipment.

In 2009, about 20 pro-Houthi suspects have been sentenced to death
and many others to jail terms ranging from 5 to 15 years.

Since the fighting erupted in 2004, thousands of people, soldiers
and insurgents have been killed in Saada, which lies close to border
with Saudi Arabia, after the rebel group was founded by Shiite rebel
leader Hussein al-Houthi.

Hussein, the eldest brother of the current group leader Abdul-Malik,
was killed by the army in September 2004.

The Yemeni government accuses the al-Houthi group of trying to
reinstall the rule of imams, which was toppled by a republican
revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

AF/AF