A court in Yemen sentenced in absentia the US-born radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki to 10 years in prison today for his role in the killing of a French engineer, and sentenced the gunman to death.
Hisham Mohammed Assem, a 22-year-old Yemeni, opened fire in October at a compound of the Austrian-owned oil and gas firm OMV, killing the Frenchman.
On the same day, suspected al Qaeda militants fired a rocket at a senior British diplomat's car carrying five staff members, who all survived with no major injuries.
Awlaki, of Yemeni descent and wanted dead or alive by the United Sates, was convicted of inciting the gunman, the state news agency Saba said. A relative, Othman al-Awlaki, also in hiding in Yemen and believed to have ties to al Qaeda, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in jail for incitement.
"The evidence presented by the prosecution confirms the relationship between Anwar and Othman al-Awlaki and the killer of the Frenchman, as an agreement among them to target foreigners," the judge said during the sentencing.
A defence lawyer for the three men said he would appeal.
At the time of the attacks, Yemeni officials said the events bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.
In Southern Yemen, where the government faces al Qaeda militants and armed separatists, a senior police official was killed by gunmen in Shabwa province, and a soldier was killed in an ambush Lahj province, local officials said.
The Sanaa court's charge sheet and sentences for Assem and the two Awlakis made no mention of al Qaeda, but linked the three to unspecified "terrorist organisations".
Yemen may have been reluctant for domestic reasons to directly link Awlaki, respected in many circles in the country, to the global militant group.
The impoverished Arabian Peninsula state is under international pressure to quash a resurgent al Qaeda branch based in the country. It is also struggling to suppress the separatist rebellion in the south and cement a fragile truce with Shi'ite rebels in the north.
Reuters