SANAA – Yemen on Monday sentenced to death a Yemeni teenager convicted of killing a Frenchman, and handed down a 10-year jail sentence in absentia on US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi whom it accuses of motivating the crime. A Sanaa criminal court specialised in terrorism passed the death sentence on Hisham Mohammed Assem after convicting him of killing French energy contractor Jacques Spagnolo near Sanaa last October. “I reject the verdict and will appeal,” 19-year-old Assem, wearing a blue prison uniform, said from inside the court security cage. Several French diplomats attended the hearing. The same court sentenced Awlaqi to 10 years in prison for taking part in an armed group and incitement to kill foreigners. His relative, Othman al-Awlaqi, was sentenced to eight years on the same charges. Both convicts are on the run and were sentenced in absentia. “This crime (killing Spagnolo) was committed under the incitement of Anwar and Othman al-Awlaqi,” the judge said as he read the verdict. The court also accused the three men of “working within a terrorist group.” Spagnolo, who worked for energy group OMV, was gunned down at the company’s compound in Sanaa on October 6, the same day a British embassy car was targeted by a rocket attack that wounded one person. Assem, a security guard at the company, was overpowered and arrested. At the time, OMV said it saw “no political background for the action taken by the Yemeni security guard” while the defence ministry said Assem had probably acted for personal reasons in what was a criminal matter. However, it stressed that the conclusions were preliminary. Prosecutors have said that Awlaqi corresponded with Assem for months, encouraging him to kill foreigners.
