ABC News reports that Jaber Elbaneh is under house arrest in Yemen. Yemen reports US officials will be allowed to view his trial but not extradite him although he is a US citizen. Yemen has what was recently dubbed a "catch and release program", but we knew that.

One of the FBI's most wanted terrorists has been placed under "house arrest" in Yemen, according to U.S. counterterrorism and federal law enforcement officials.

Jaber Elbaneh, an alleged al Qaeda operative with ties to the Buffalo, N.Y., "Lackawanna six" terrorism case, reportedly surrendered to Yemeni security services last week. Elbaneh has been charged in the United States with providing material support to al Qaeda and is currently on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list.

But officials say it's unclear when  or even if  they will ever get to question Elbaneh.

A spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy released a statement to ABC News, noting that because Elbaneh is a Yemeni citizen, the constitution of that country prohibits his extradition to face a trial abroad....Spokesman Mohammed Albahsa concluded his statement by saying, "Elbaneh is in our custody and make no mistake justice will prevail. He faces multiple convictions for committing terrorist and criminal violent activities and he will be trialed accordingly. U.S. authorities will have access to his trial so will the media."

It reminds me of Abu-bakr al-Reibi who lived at home, according to his father, after being sentenced to a ten year prison term on terrorism charges, .

“As for Abu Bakr, he surrendered himself when his brother Fawaz was arrested here in Abyan and the officials—including the President of the Republic—reassured him that nothing would happen to him,” (his father, Yahya) al-Rabi’e said.

“Abu Bakr’s trial was nominal. It was only meant to please the Americans,” said al-Rabi’e. “He did not spend even one day in the prison. The security would only take him from my house to appear in the court, and then bring him back after the court hearings. Even when the imprisonment sentence was issued, he was not in the courtroom,” he said.

SJTL

Posted by: JaneNovak at 07:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 355 words, total size 3 kb.