Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
Al-Qaeda in Yemen has announced the execution of 11 captives, including journalist Mohammed Al-Muqri, on charges of “spying for the enemy.”
In a statement released on Friday, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) security committee issued what it called a “clarification statement on some security matters,” citing “messages from the families of those involved in espionage against the Mujahideen of Ansar al-Sharia to inquire about their status.”
The statement claimed that “the punishment of God has been carried out on these spies who represent only themselves and not their honorable families or tribes,” adding that their families should disown their “shameful actions.”
The statement described journalist Mohammed Al-Muqri as a “spy for national security,” stating that he “was executed after being tried and sentenced to death, and the sentence was carried out at the time.”
The statement also included the name “Naji Al-Zaheri,” describing him as a “spy for Yemeni and US political security during the first US airstrike in the Arabian Peninsula in 2002 in Marib, through an American airstrike. He confessed and admitted to spying on the Mujahideen for the enemy, and therefore a judicial ruling was issued against him with the death penalty, and the ruling was carried out at the time, and the media committee of the group published part of his confessions.”
The list of those executed included what the statement described as the “Al-Baidha cell that was arrested in Al-Soma’a before the Mujahideen withdrew from it. They confessed and admitted to spying on the Mujahideen for the enemy, and therefore a judicial ruling was issued against them with the death penalty, and the ruling was carried out at the time.”
According to the statement, those executed included “Mohammed Ahmed Hussein Al-Azani, nicknamed ‘Dhamra,’ a spy for national security, Mohammed Ahmed Bashb, a spy for national security, Abdul Rahman Hussein Hadis, a spy for national security, Al-Rassas Alowi Hussein Ahmed Al-Rassas, a spy for the US, Abdul Aziz Mohammed Saleh Al-Hadi, known as ‘Zengi,’ a spy for the Houthis, Hussein Mohammed Ali Al-Sa’adi, known as ‘Mujahed Al-Sa’adi,’ a spy for the Houthis, Abdullah Ali Al-Azani, nicknamed ‘Al-Hayawan,’ a spy for national security, Yusuf Saleh Ahmed Mohammed Abdul Karim Al-Humiqani, a spy for the UAE and national security, and Hussein Ali Mohammed Hussein Al-Sawadi, a spy for political security.”
The statement indicated that “they were proven guilty of spying on the Mujahideen for the enemies, and of causing the unlawful killing of Muslims and violating their honor, by planting spy chips and transmitting information to US intelligence, through Yemeni national security, spying for the UAE, and spying for the Houthi Rawafid. They confessed and admitted to this, and therefore the aforementioned were sentenced to death by the Sharia court, and the sentence was carried out at the time.”
The statement did not specify the timing of the execution, while the Sada Al-Malahim media institution affiliated with the organization broadcast what it described as confessions of some of those who were executed.
It should be noted that journalist Mohammed Al-Muqri was kidnapped from the city of Mukalla in Hadramaut Governorate, eastern Yemen, in 2016.
