A Yemeni appeals court yesterday upheld the death sentence imposed on an extremist scholar for the assassination of a senior opposition politician three years ago. Ali Ahmad Jarallah, 28, confessed in July 2003 that he had acted alone in shooting dead Jarallah Omar, deputy leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party, at a congress in Sanaa of the Islamic-oriented Al-Islah party. He was arrested at the scene of the slaying.In a 12-page ruling, the Sanaa court rejected the appeal for leniency by Jarallah who was convicted of shooting Omar several times at close range on Dec. 28, 2002. A lower court sentenced him to death last year. "We uphold the conviction of Ali Ahmad Jarallah and his sentence to death as prescribed by the Shariah," said the appeals court chief judge, Muhammad Al-Akwaa. Jarallah was to be executed by firing squad after the Supreme Court and President Ali Abdullah Saleh ratified the sentence, court officials said. Jarallah immediately blasted the verdict as unfair, saying the killing was part of a "holy war" against apostates and infidels.