Four Saudis sentenced to death for 'belonging to al-Qaeda, carrying out beheadings in 2014'

A court in Sanaa has sentenced to death four Saudis convicted of belonging to al-Qaeda and beheading 14 Yemeni soldiers in a 2014 attack.

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab

10 July, 2017

Houthi rebels control the capital Sanaa [AFP]

Four Saudis have been convicted of belonging to al-Qaeda in Yemen and beheading 14 Yemeni soldiers in 2014, a court in Sanaa ruled on Sunday, according to Houthi-run media.

"The criminal court in charge of terrorism cases in Sanaa on Sunday sentenced four Saudi nationals to death for belonging to al-Qaeda and killing and beheading 14 soldiers of the 135th Brigade," al-Masirah television reported, according to Reuters.

The men will be executed in public in the presence of the families of those killed, the channel said.

The 2014 beheading was one of many carried out by al-Qaeda branch in Yemen - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] - which targeted Yemeni security officials before the country descended into a full blown war and the intervention of Saudi Arabia.

More than two years of war between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels who control the capital has pushed the Arab world's poorest country to the brink of famine.

The war has killed around 10,000 people and displaced some three million.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs describe the country as the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world".