Monday, April 09, 2007
SANAA (AFP) - A Yemeni court on Monday acquitted a Dane of Somali origin, Abdi Osman Soni, of attempting to traffic arms to the Islamist militia which controlled central and southern Somalia until December.
But his Yemeni co-defendant on the trafficking charge, Abdullah Awadh Abdullah al-Masri, was sentenced to three years in prison.
The court did not state why Soni was acquitted but the prosecution said it would appeal the decision.
Both men were arrested on October 16. They are among eight people suspected of trying to traffic arms to the Union of Islamic Courts militia which controlled Mogadishu for six months up to its eviction by Ethiopian-backed transitional government forces late last year.
A November report by UN experts accused a raft of third countries of pouring in weapons to the warring factions in Somalia.
Yemen, which has been fighting its own US-backed war against Islamic militants for the past six years, was the sole Arab country accused of favouring the transitional government, alongside Ethiopia and Uganda.
Source: AFP, April 09, 2007