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Moroccan politicians recieve death threats from terrorists

2005-12-07

Several Moroccan politicians and intellectuals have received death threats from extremist Islamist groups in recent weeks while the authorities have released further information to the media on a terrorist cell with links to al Qaeda said to be on the verge carrying out attacks this December. A group calling itself “The Moroccan Islamic Army for Shariaa” recently threatened Mohammad al Yazghi, secretary general of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces and Minister of Territorial Development, Idriss Lashgar, Head of the socialist bloc in parliament and Fathallah Oualalou, Minister of Economy and Finance. According to Abdullah al Rami, an expert on al Qaeda’s activities in cyberspace, nothing suggests that the threats were genuine. However, he told Asharq al Awsat, militants Islamists consider secular figures and democrats as indifesl who have renounced Islam and believe murdering them is permissible. “In theory, socialists are apostates but murdering them is unlikely because of a lack of war with this category. Nevertheless, smaller groups might seize the initiative and carry out these threats, as was the case with the murder of Jarallah Omar, the socialist leader in Yemen.” “The Moroccan Islamic Army for the Shariaa is an unknown group. The most important militant group to emerge from Morocco in recent months is Usbat al Fallah [the League of Farmers]. The group issued a powerful communiqué from Syria in November,” he added. With many militant leaders in jail, “The control of extremist cells has passed to members of the “Salafi Jihad” group, currently active in Iraq and Afghanistan,” al Rami indicated, adding that the network was trying to re-organize itself in line with the current situation, the war in Iraq and the emergence of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Following the terrorist attacks in Casablanca in May 2003, the Moroccan authorities clamped down and arrested several militant leaders. This, according to al Rami, has lead to a power vacuum whereby any individual is now able to declare themselves head of an extremist cell.

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Arabia

Yemen Executes Holy Man for Murder of Politician

2005-11-28

A Yemeni preacher convicted of murdering a top opposition politician in December 2002 was executed in Sanaa yesterday, prison officials said. Hokey smokes! That's a first, isn't it? Ali Ahmad Jarallah, 28, was executed by firing squad at the central prison in the capital Sanaa, they told Arab News. “A police officer shot four fatal shots from a Kalashnikov rifle into Jarallah’s back,” one official said. A Yemeni court sentenced Jarallah in September 2003 to death for shooting dead Jarallah Omar, the assistant secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party. The sentence was upheld by an appeals court and President Ali Abdullah Saleh affirmed the verdict last week. G'bye, Ali! Give our regards to Himmler! Jarallah, a prayer leader at a mosque in the city, shot Omar several times at close range during a congress for Al-Islah party in Sanaa on Dec. 28, 2002. He was arrested on the spot. Jarallah told the primary court that he killed Omar because of his stance against the Shariah. “I killed a man who fought against God’s law,” he shouted after the verdict was announced on Sept. 14, 2003. God's law, of course, has nothing in it about not killing people... The execution, carried out amid tight security, was attended by relatives of the assassinated politician and his family’s lawyers. Journalists were barred from attending. Armored police vehicles patrolled the prison’s vicinity and special force personnel were stationed on the prison walls.

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Arabia

Yemen Court Upholds Death for Killer of Socialist Politician

2005-04-24

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.

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Arabia

Another postponement in the Jar Allah Omr case

2004-04-13

The Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal in Sana’a City has adjourned the Jarallah Omar murder case to 26 April 2004. The court hearing, presided over by Judge Mohamed Al-Akwa, was attended by the prosecution and defense lawyers of Ali Jarallah Al-Sawany, who is accused of killing the Assistant Secretary-General of the Yemen Socialist Party. Relatives of the deceased were also present. The postponement was approved in order to receive answers related to the appeal petition presented by the General Prosecution and to consider the demands concerning the personal rights of the accused and for the court to oblige the General Prosecution to provide the remaining investigation minutes, which include names of persons having relations with the accused. Some lawyers are suspicious that the Prosecution is misleading the court, hiding documents and dropping some witnesses. Lawyer Mohamed Al-Saqqaf demanded that the court should question separately all of the suspects muzzled by the general prosecution. The case of the murder of Jarallah Omar remains a primary concern of political parties and continues to receive wide attention due to doubt concerning the concealment of names of important persons.

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Arabia

Parliament agrees to reinvestigate Omar’s assassination

2004-01-01

The Yemeni parliament chairmanship agreed Monday to the opposition request concerning the reinvestigation into the assassination of the YSP Assistant Secretary General Jarallah Omar, a source at the National Authority following up the case told Yemen Times. He said that Speaker Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar and his deputy Yahya al-Ra’ee met a delegation of the authority Monday which delivered a message to them, requesting that investigation into the assassination should be done again to unveil the compliance of the assassin Ali Ahmed Jarallah and the political motives of the crime. If I recall correctly, Jarallah was a member of al-Islah, the Islamist party. He bumped off Jarallah Omar — no apparent relation — because he was a secularist, and remarked he wished he was a nuclear bomb so he could "blow to smithereens all secularists". He added that al-Ahmar and al-Ra’ee responded positively to the request and decided to write a message to the Court of Appeals of Sana’a, requesting it not go on in the trial so that all aspects of the case be made clear. They also said they would address the General Prosecutor Dr. Abdullah al-Ulofi and chief of intelligence with regard to the demands of the socialist party, conducting investigations into the issues the party believes important. This move on part of the parliament will achieve the YSP and opposition objectives in reinvestigation into the crime, revealing all aspects of the assassination and the people standing behind it. The YSP already said that names of the persons mentioned during the investigation with the murderer, including leading members of the Islah party. So it sounds like the socialists want to get a few more political miles out of the investigation before the sentence is confirmed... The court of appeals is expected to start the trial sessions this month as the assassin appealed the primary court verdict, sentencing him to death and five of his cell’s members to 5-10 years imprisonment in jail. Besides, the opposition observed the first anniversary of the assassination of Omar, attacking the government and holding it accountable for not disclosing the real truth behind the crime. This is the al-Islah counterattack here... Mohammed Kahtan, head of Islah’s political department lashed out at the government in a ceremony held Sunday, accusing it of trading in terrorism and expanding the size of poverty, oppression, calling for a political balance in the country to enhance freedoms and protect human rights against tyranny. He strongly attacked the government which he said is making business out of the fight on terrorism, pointing out that this procedure has caused problems to the country as “the country and its political forces are not a commodity in your shops to trade with”. He demanded the government to “fight terrorism in a more serious and legal way.” They then follow up with a slight redefinition of "terrorism"... “Terrorism is taking away the food of the masses, messing security and depositing public money in commercial banks,” he said. On his part, Abdulmalik al-Mikhlafi, secretary general of the Unionist Nasserite Party said that the coalition of terrorism and corruption is behind delay in disclosing the truth about Omar’s death despite the passing of one year since the crime. He demanded that the democratic margin should be widened, abolishing the law of demonstrations, amending the election law. “While the government is conducting dialogues with terrorists, it is arresting the political activists calling for change,” he added.

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Arabia

Saleh orders investigation into al-Zindani fatwa

2003-10-20

Fractured syntax courtesy of Yemen Times. Coffee warning on the last paragraph... President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the general prosecution to investigate into the religious fatwa accusing the socialist leader Yassin Saeed Noman, former speaker of parliament, of being an infidel, reliable sources close to the Yemeni presidency said Saturday. The fatwa which was announced last week has been attributed to Sheikh Abdulmajeed al-Zindani, head of Islah Consultative Council and rector of al-Eman University. The sources added that Saleh asked the general prosecution to investigate into the fatwa which al-Zindani has been accused to have issued on the basis that Dr. Noman used to say when he was running the parliament hearings “the rule is for the parliament members” in figuring out or voting on any issue while, according to al-Zindani, he should have said that “the rule is for God”. The president’s order came out as a result of a complaint filed by the Yemeni Socialist Party. Well. Yeah. I guess that's good reason to declare him an infidel and have him killed. In Yemen, anyway... Yemen Times learnt that the denial made by al-Zindani last week was just a political compromise on part of the opposition coalition delegation members who met al-Zindani at his house in the university campus. "No, no! Certainly not!" Political sources told Yemen Times that al-Zindani refused to deny the allegation that he has issued the fatwa and told them that was his opinion. But, when they scared him that this would give an excuse for the US to ask for his extradition and trial, he told them that they can deny that he issued the fatwa. There. That made it all better, didn't it? However, al-Zindani, who was a member of the Presidential Council after the unification, never asked the media to quote him denying that. The opposition has taken this move in order to avoid any breakdown of their coalition whose main components are the Islah and the YSP. Some time earlier, an American newspaper quoted Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, head of the committee conducting dialogues with al-Qaeda prisoners as saying that the attackers of the USS Cole carried out their operation on the basis of a fatwa issued by al-Zindani. But, al-Hitar later denied he said so. It was also reported that al-Zindani is one of those clerics wanted by the US for their link to al-Qaeda and that his university is producing extremists and fundamentalists. Oh, go ahead. Deny that, too... The YSP condemned last week the religious edict or what it said is “this ossified way of thinking and the continuation of these tactics of calling people infidel and assassinations, violence and thought and political terrorism and discrimination that do not accept freedom of opinion of people.” The YSP called on the authorities to shoulder their legal responsibility towards this tendency of naming its prominent leaders as infidel, ending all factors that can destabilize security and peace. That would be a step in the right direction. No doubt they can't do it for... ummm... religious reasons. It also demanded that the fatwa issued during the civil war which named all socialists as unbelievers and that all acts against them are legal. It said also that the culture, mobilization and other measures taken on the basis of this fatwa should be abolished, urging all political forces in the country to work against such culture from school curricula, sermons of mosque preachers and mass media, and to enhance tolerance and openness in the society. The assassin of Jarallah Omar, YSP assistant secretary general who was sentenced to death in mid-September said during the tribunal sessions that all socialists and secular people are infidels who deserve death penalty. Ali Ahmad Jarallah based his assassination of Omar on an allegation that Omar demanded the abolishing of death penalty which he described as an abuse to human rights. So he killed him. That makes sense. In Yemen, anyway...

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Arabia

Yemeni Politician’s Killer to Count Muzzle Blasts

2003-09-15

A Yemeni court yesterday sentenced to death an Islamic militant convicted of shooting dead a leading politician last December and plotting to kill other secular figures. The North Sanaa district court found Ali Ahmad Jarallah, 26, guilty of gunning down the deputy secretary-general of the Yemen Socialist Party (YSP), Jarallah Omar, 56. Ahmad Jarallah was arrested immediately after the shooting which took place at a party congress for the Islamic-oriented Yemeni Congregation for Reform or Islah on Dec. 28, 2002. Police said after the attack that Jarallah belonged to the Islah, but the main opposition party vehemently denied his membership. "Nope, never heard of him. He must of snuck into the party." “We find him guilty of premeditated murder of Jarallah Omar and the attempted murder of Saeid Al-Mameri,” said the verdict read by Chief Judge Abdul-Rahman Jahhaf. Al-Mameri, a member of Islah, was injured in the shooting. The court ordered that Jarallah be executed by a firing squad. Dressed in blue prison uniform and standing behind bars, Jarallah, who did not show any emotion during earlier court hearings, nodded and smiled when the verdict was pronounced. "Groovey, man. Oh wow, look at the colors!" The court also convicted the man of planning to set up a 13-member terror cell to murder secular politicians, journalists and foreign missionaries. Mostly politicians, they tend to frown on that. Five other men, accused by prosecution of belonging to Jarallah’s group, were given prison terms between three and 10 years for helping him. No revolving door prison for you guys. The court acquitted six others due to lack of evidence. The assassination of Omar came two days before Islamic militant Aabid Abdur-Razzak Kamil, 32, shot dead three American missionaries at a Baptist hospital in southern Yemen. Kamil shot dead two physicians and an administrator on Dec. 30, 2003. A fourth missionary was injured in the attack. Prosecutors said Kamil was No. 2 in the terror group established by Jarallah. Kamil was sentenced to death by a criminal court in southern Yemen in May. Neither one will be missed.

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Arabia

Ali al-Jarallah to have neck lengthened

2003-09-14

A Yemeni court on Sunday sentenced a Muslim extremist to death for plotting the assassination of a politician and three American missionaries in December 2002. Ali al-Jarallah was found guilty of planning the assassination of Jarallah Omar, deputy secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party, as well as the murder two days later of the missionaries at a Southern Baptist missionary hospital in Jibla. He was also convicted of creating a terror cell to assassinate local officials and foreigners, as well as buying weapons and explosives. Six accomplices in the Omar murder were given terms between three to 10 years. Seven other alleged militants were acquitted by the court. Look on the bright side, Ali. When you're eight inches taller, think of how imposing you'll look.

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Arabia

Link between terrorists and officials in Jarallah’s assassination

2003-07-17

The Court of North Sana’a decided Sunday that the verdict against the suspect assassin of Jarallah Omar, the socialist leader, and members of the suspect’s gang, would be passed on September 14th while the Socialist Party denounced this step taken by the court, appealing that investigation into the case should reveal the political motives behind the assassin and his group. As opposed to strictly criminal motives... In its hearing last Sunday, the Judge of the court, Abdulrahman Jahaf refused the appeal made the advocates of the family of Jarallah Omar to return the case to the prosecution for further investigations. During the session, attended by some socialist and opposition leaders, including the YSP Secretary General, Ali Saleh Obad as well as some intellectuals and writers whose names were mentioned in the list of targets of Ali Jarallah and his team, the team of advocates asked the defendant some questions related to the incident, finance and the people he met before assassinating Omar. The suspected assassin confessed before the court of his crime and said he did that because Omar and the other targets were secular people who do not recognize Islam as a religion. I'm sure they recognize Islam as a religion. They're just not slavish to Ali's particular brand... He also said that he met some people like Dr. Ahmad al-Daghshi who was arrested but later released. In a written paper which he read out before the court, Ali Jarallah said that the other detained suspects have no link to his plan for murdering what he described as “secular politicians and writers, missionaries and member of the al-Buhrah religious sect.” He said he deceived them by telling them that he could facilitate their travel to Chechnya and Palestine to perform Jihad, pointing out that they had no idea about the messages which he sent to them. And don't they feel foolish now?... Oh. They don't. He said that he did not plan to create an organization to carry out his ideas, rather he recorded a tape in which he explained his ideas of the necessity that such people should be killed. "Yes, yes! Kill them all!" He denied that he received finance for such operations and assassination of Omar from Sheikh Abdulmajeed al-Zindani and Mohammed al-Anisi, both of them are leading members of the Islah party and said that he admitted their involvement in the plan because he was beaten up at the intelligence prison. "Yeah! They dunnit! Now stop hitting me there!" He made it clear that he meant in the beginning to make government officials, including the president, as targets of his operations as they protect such missionaries, seculars and infidels. But he said he excluded the president and top officials as this might have been exploited by the Socialist party. The defendant demanded in a cynical tone that leaders of the Socialist, Nasserite and Baath parties to be tried for their infidelity till they repent.

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Arabia

Yemen nabs a pair of Bigs...

2003-01-30

Yemeni authorities arrested last week two people from al-Eman university affiliated to Sheikh Abdulmajeed Al-Zindani of the Islah Party. Reliable sources said that the intelligence arrested Wednesday a student at al-Eman university named Abduljabar al-Marwani. Two days earlier, the authorities arrested Dr. Ahmad al-Daghshi, a professor at Sana'a and al-Eman universities. The two persons were detained as their names were mentioned during interrogations with the killers of Jarallah Omar and the US doctors. That's two more off the street, at least for awhile... Investigations with the detainees have proven they were all from a fundamentalist Jihad movement headed by Ali Jarallah, assassin of Jarallah Omar. According to the investigators, the cell members were planning to carry out terrorist operations and assassinations targeting several foreign interests as well as politicians, writers and journalists for allegedly adopting and calling for secularism. Omigawd! Secularism! How awful! The list is said to have included over 30 persons. Investigations are reported to have proved a link between the cell and the Yemeni Jihad movement whose members were educated at the hands of the Egyptian Jihad movement members who were deported from Yemen some years ago. The Yemeni authorities have also launched an arrest campaign against the Yemeni Jihad members since 1998, which coincided with a similar campaign against Aden-Abyan Islamic Army members after the Abyan fiasco in which some foreign tourists were killed. The government announced in late 1999 the execution of the army chief , Abu Al-Hasan al-Mihdar. Note that was two years before 9-11. Saleh's regime doesn't screw around with these guys — and since 9-11 they've become serious... Observers believe that the discovery of the Ali Jarallah's cell and making sure that it has links with Jihad indicates that there are sleeper cells of Jihad, Aden army and others which might find a match with al-Qaeda whose members are still being hunted down by the authorities, mainly those people whose names were mentioned in the FBI's lists like Abu Assem al-Ahdal and Fawaz al-Rabee. To meet the challenges of these groups, the Interior ministry announced last week that it is going to launch the second phase of the electronic monitoring on some important places and streets in the capital. It will install cameras that are connected to an operation room in the ministry which will make it easier for the security people to monitor any terrorist activities and thwart them. This phase will target 15 important places. The ministry announced earlier this month that a new security plan to fight terrorism and control outlaws will be initiated. If I was Bush and/or Powell, I'd become better friends with Saleh. I remember how surprised I was, November a year ago, when Yemen started rounding up Bad Guys. I thought at the time it was because we were tromping the Talibs in Afghanistan, and may have been partly right. They were downright uncooperative in the Cole investigation. But since then, Saleh's regime has been doing what it can to clean up the kidnap industry and to break up the terror sympathizers. Unlike a lot of other Arab regimes, he's been as good as his word. The U.S. should recognize that fact, and probably does — though behind the scenes. It's still dangerous to be pro-American in that part of the world. As a side benefit, a secure partnership between Yemen and the U.S. would strike a certain amount of fear in the hearts of the Bad Guys. Yemenis on the Qaeda side are vicious, merciless killers. I have nothing against having some vicious, merciless Good Guys on our side. Who's got moustachios more magnificent than a Yemeni?

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Arabia

GPC's Assistant General Secretary dies

2003-01-17

Lahj, January 12 2003 - Brigadier General Yahya Al-Mutawakkil, the third man in the ruling party the General People's Congress (GPC) was announced dead by the hospital management in the Intensive Care Unit of one of Aden's hospitals. His three bodyguards were also killed in a horrifying traffic accident when they were on their way to Sanaa after attending seminars promoting the GPC for elections in the economic capital Aden. Their car crashed into another vehicle, whose passengers are in critical conditions. An accident? The accident occurred in a dangerous turn the highway 25 kilometers away from Aden at 8:00 in the morning. The dangerous turn makes it plausible... The accident sent a shockwave throughout the country because Al-Mutawakkil is among the most powerful people in the country and has been known for his major contributions to the GPC party since the 1970s. Investigation is taking place at the moment to know whether the incident was purely an accident or there were other factors behind it. Could be coincidental, I guess. Could be I'm an Irishman named Murphy, too... This comes a few weeks after Jarallah Omar, the counterpart of Al-Mutawakkil in the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party, was assassinated in Sanaa. "It would be tragic if we lose two of our finest politicians in such a short time" said a source at the Ministry of Interior. Unless the other car was full of nuns, I'll continue to believe it was a hit...

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Arabia

Scores of Yemeni students arrested under pretext of terrorism links

2003-01-04

Middle East Online and Ummahnews A large number of Islamist students have been arrested in Yemen in the wake of this week's murders fatal shootings of three American missionaries and the assassination of a socialist political leader, a security official said Thursday. "Many students at Al-Iman University in Sanaa suspected of extremist activities and having links with the assassins of the three American missionaries and the number two of the Yemeni Socialist Party Jarallah Omar were arrested Thursday," said the official. He would not disclose exactly how many students had been arrested, but said among them were "persons whose names were mentioned in the questioning of the assassins of the Americans and Jarallah Omar." If the Yemenis do something with them other than hold them for a few days and then let them go, they're serious about the War on Terror.

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