Yemeni court sentences anti-unity former diplomat to five years in prison
29 March 2010 | 03:58 | FOCUS News Agency
Sanaa. A Yemeni security court on Sunday sentenced a former diplomat who is now a leader of the pro- independence Southern Movement to five years in prison over anti- national unity criminal counts,
Xinhua News Agency informed.
The Sanaa-based court said Qasim Askar Jubran, a former ambassador to Mauritania and a leader of the anti-unity Southern Movement, has been proven guilty of criminal counts against the national unity and calling for armed insurrection against the government.
In the court, the prosecutor told Judge Muhssin Alwan that defendant Jubran had perpetrated criminal counts against the government's interests and the national unity, as well as calling for armed insurrection against the government troops during the period 2007 until April 16, 2009.
The verdict is a part in a series of trials involving anti- unity separatist activists of the Southern Movement since early this month.
On March 23, a state security court in Sanaa sentenced a leader of the pro-independence Southern Movement, also a former parliamentarian Ahmed Ba-Muallim, to 10 years in prison over anti- national unity criminal acts.
On the same day, an Aden-based criminal court issued a verdict against a retired Brigadier General Ali Mohammed al-Saadi over the same charges, sentencing him to 15 months in jail.
Northern and southern Yemen were unified in 1990 according to a deal between the People's General Congress and the Yemeni Socialist Party. However, the deal fell apart, leading to a crisis between the two allies, which developed into a civil war in 1994.
Nowadays, voices rise in South Yemen where secessionist sentiments are simmering, calling for disengagement from the north and the restoration of the southern state.
The Sanaa government carried out several similar security sweeps over the past month in an attempt to rein in massive rallies which were held across the southern provinces aimed to rally international support for their cause.
