Yemenis sentenced over bombing

Some of the defendants' lawyers boycott the trial

A Yemeni court has sentenced 15 men on terror charges, including the bombing of the French Limburg tanker and a plan to kill the US ambassador to Yemen.

One of the defendants was sentenced to death while the other defendants received jail terms of up to 10 years.

The Limburg oil tanker was badly damaged in an attack, blamed on al-Qaeda, which took place off the Yemeni coast in October 2002.

The militants were also found guilty of detonating explosives at embassies.

Boycott

One of the men was found guilty of involvement in an attack on a helicopter carrying Texas-based Hunt Oil employees and detonating explosives at a civil aviation authority building.

The death sentence was handed down to a man who was found guilty of shooting dead an Yemeni policeman at a checkpoint in 2002.

The accused interrupted the summing up, shouting out "Fear God!" and "Lies!".

Most of their lawyers had boycotted the proceedings, which they said were unfair.

"These are illegal sentences because the lawyers were not given the chance to defend them," said the father of one of the defendants.

Yemen's co-operation with the US's "War on Terror" has led to the detention of hundreds of people who are suspected of having ties with al-Qaeda.