Yemeni Jews: source: Yemen Observer

by Nasser Arrabyee, Yemen Observer, March 3, 2009

A Yemeni primary court in Amran, north of the country, ruled on Monday a payment to be made of 5.5 million YR (US$ 27,500) in blood money for the murder of a Jewish man by Yemeni, Abdul Azeez al-Abdi, last December.

The court, chaired by Judge Abdul Bari Aqaba, also ordered that the convict should be placed in a psychotic sanatorium. The father of the Jew refused the sentence and asked for an appeal to be made to demand the death penalty against the convict.

“As long as there is no justice for us, then (they should) deport us to Israel, it’s better for us.”

“We’ll go and complain to President Ali Abdull Saleh, and we’ll cut our hair in front of him, if he did justice to us ok, or we’ll cut our heads,” said the father of Mousa in the court room.

The lawyer of the Jewish family, Khaled al-Ansi, said,” The verdict is a big scandal, and declaring us killers of Jews is a big abuse to our values and faith.”

“The trial was not fair, and was not secure, the Judge was afraid. The verdict will lead to the immigration of the remaining Jews from Yemen,” al-Ansi added.

On his part, The rabbi of the Jewish community in Amran, Yahya Yaeish, said “The verdict will encourage more killings of Jews.”

The convict, Abdul Azeez al-Abdi 40, a former pilot in the Yemeni army, killed Mousa Yaish Al Nahari 35, on December 11, 2008, near his house in Raida, Amran province, 80 km north of the Yemeni capital Sana’a.

Al-Abdi said later in the court sessions, he killed Al Nahari “to get closer to Allah” saying he warned the Jews months ago either convert to Islam or leave the country.

During the court sessions, the lawyers of al-Abdi said their client was suffering from psychotic problems and presented to the court a medical report recommending putting al-Abdi in a psychotic sanitarium.

“Executing me is better than putting me in a sanitarium, I’m very well.” He told his lawyer who was reading the report about his psychotic problems, “Muslims should not lie, and the Jews will laugh at us.”

Then he said to Yaish al-Nahari, father of Mousa, and to Loza Solaiman, his wife, who were in the court room, “I killed him while I was very well, they deceive you.”

The lawyers also presented to the court a document signed by 40 men from the tribe of al-Abdi witnessing that he was suffering psychotic problems.

During one of the previous hearings, al-Abdi refused his Yemeni lawyers who had volunteered to defend him, saying he wants only an American lawyer chosen by the US embassy in Sana’a because, he said, the Yemeni lawyers ” can be killed but an American can be protected”.

The Jewish community in Yemen amounts to 332 members. In Raida the community constitutes 266, the remaining living in the capital Sana’a.