Yemen tries 17 militant suspects

Some reports described the procedures as farcical

Seventeen men have appeared in court in Yemen charged with forming an armed group to attack American targets.

The prosecutor said the defendants had returned to Yemen from Iraq in 2004 to carry out attacks on behalf Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militant group.

The official Yemeni news agency said four of the defendants had admitted entering Yemen illegally, carrying forged Yemeni documents.

The agency said the other 13 defendants had denied the charges against them.

It said five of the defendants were Saudi nationals, but did not identify the nationalities of the others.

Reports from the court said proceedings sometimes descended into farce with defendants giving facetious answers to the judge, and one calling for an al-Jazeera camera crew so he could greet his family watching at home.

Boycott

One defendant accused the prosecution of putting on a show directed and produced by the intelligence agencies, Associated Press reported.

The judge laughed and asked: "Who were the stars?"

Khaled al-Ansi, one of a large number of lawyers who are boycotting the trial said many people had been illegally arrested by the security forces.

"They discovered most of them were innocent under Yemeni law, which doesn't criminalise fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan or joining al-Qaeda," he is quoted saying by AP.

"They just want a way out of this embarrassing situation, so they're having these nominal trials which they also use to give the impression they're fighting terrorism," he said.

The prosecution say the men met in safe houses to plot an attack on a hotel in the southern port city of Aden that is popular with Americans.

The case was adjourned until 1 March.