Yemen has charged 35 suspects with taking part in foiled suicide attacks on oil facilities last year. But why bother even going through the charaged of charging them? They’re only going to be set free when nobody’s looking.
A hundred jailed Muslim extremists, including some who allegedly fought for al-Qaida in Iraq, were released by authorities, a Yemeni security official said.
The official, speaking Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that some of the released completed serving their sentences, while some of the others were acquitted for lack of evidence.
[…]The official added that 19 of the released fought under the command of al-Qaida in Iraq’s previous leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, prior to his death in a U.S. airstrike last June. Some of the 19 had been convicted of plotting terrorist attacks after they were handed over to Yemen by Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Among the released were four Saudis and also members of a Yemeni extremist group the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that had kidnapped four tourists three Britons and an Australian, in 1998. The tourists were killed in a botched rescue attempt by Yemeni security forces.
An interior ministry official, who said that the released members of Aden-Abyan Islamic Army were given $1,000 to help them restart life outside bars.
By the way, the “botched rescue attempt” was a rescue attempt by security forces that resulted in four of the tourists being killed. I can’t really find much detailed information about the trials afterward, but apparently, being involved in a kidnapping that resulted in the deaths of four hostages only earns you about ten years in jail in Yemen. Plus, you get money to help you start your life again once you get out. Now there’s punishment for you. But hey, they were only infidels, right?
Yemen’s penal system begins to sound a bit like Sweden’s, a little tougher perhaps but fundamentally similar. How enlightened. Why do I think that if these guys had done something the Yemeni government considered serious, like trying to overthrow it or robbing a bank Al-President was embezzling from, or even jaywalking, the penalty would have been at least a trifle more severe, like execution after torture?