29 al-Qaeda members on trial in Yemen

Trial began in Sanaa on Saturday for 29 members of al-Qaeda in Yemen which include Egyptians and Jordanians and belong to three different cells. Another court in Hadramout sentenced three Somalis to 10 years in prison on charges of maritime piracy. The Sanaa Court of First Instance in Sanaa, which specialises in terror cases, sat Saturday to look into the case involving three al-Qaeda terrorist cells comprising 29 members including Egyptians and Jordanians. They face charges of membership in armed gangs and attacking army and police forces in the Abyan Province last year. The court is set to start looking at the prosecution's evidence Saturday. A specialised court in the eastern province of Hadramout convicted three Somalis of maritime piracy and sentenced them to 10 years in prison. They face the same fate as 10 other compatriots that the same court sentenced similarly about a week ago. The three convicts were arrested in November 2011 and were charged with hijacking a Yemeni boat in the Gulf of Aden which they then went on to use for acts of piracy in Yemeni and international waters. They also hijacked a foreign-owned yacht.