PRO-HOUTHI CELL TO APPEAR IN COURT NEXT WEEK

SANA'A, Dec. 14 (Saba) - A three-member pro-Houthi cell is to appear
in the Specialist Penal Court in Sana'a next Monday, December 21,
the state-run 26 September website reported on Monday.

Judicial sources told the website that the cell members are Tawifiq
Mohammed Hessian Tunayna, Hamoud Hamoud Naji al-Qahoum and Othman
Hadi Zain al-Hurqah.

The sources said that the suspects would be accused of involvement
in an armed gang to carry out collective criminal project, including
several sabotage and criminal acts, resulting in killing and
wounding many soldiers and innocent citizens in Sa'ada governorate.

The trial comes among a series of others in the Yemeni courts
against tens of al-Houthi loyalists charged with supporting the
north-based insurgency. The courts have passed many death sentences
and another jail terms ranged from 5 - 15 years.

About 20 al-Houthi suspects have been sentenced to death and more
than 25 subversives to jail terms ranging from 5 to 15 years last
October.

In July, Yemen handed down death sentences to ten subversives after
they were found guilty of forming armed gangs and fighting the
troops in support for the Houthis.

Others were given jail terms ranging from 5-15 years.

Indictments against the sentenced included that they had weapons
which they used to carry out bombings, fight troops and harm the
people's interests.

Confrontations with al-Houthi insurgents have erupted in the mid of
August between government forces and supporters of rebel leader
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in Sa'ada.

This is the sixth conflict between the government forces and the
rebels in Sa'ada governorate since 2004. Thousands of people,
soldiers and insurgents have been killed in Saada province, which is
located close to border with Saudi Arabia.

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

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


AF/AF