Three suspects were sentenced to death after a Yemeni court convicted them of throwing a bomb on a revolution protesters killing one of them last year, informed sources in Taiz city said on Sunday.
The East Taiz court handed down the death sentences in absentia since the three are still at large, the sources said. The convicts were named: Omer Ghulais, Muhammad Abdu Saif and Ahmed Hamoud Saeed.
The bomb was detonated at the freedom square in downtown in February 2011 in the province, which turned into a battlefield between revolutionaries and the pro-former regime forces.
Al-Bathadi was the first revolutionary victim in the southern province.
The verdict has been hailed by the youth-led protesters in the change and freedom squares in Yemeni cities, with youths inside the change square in Sanaa hoping it will be the first in a series of coming verdicts against all involved in the crackdown against the protests last year.
Activists and lawyers said justice must be established in Yemen, especially on cases related the popular uprising as they argued the verdict in Taiz today was a real victory.
Apart from this, a security director was assassinated in Hadramout early Sunday.
Local security sources said an explosive bomb targeted at the car of brigadier Muhammad Al-Harmaly, security director in the Roukab area in Mukalla city.
"The bombing killed the officer and two other soldiers and injured others while they were leaving the security office in the district," the sources continued.
Al-Qaida is believed to behind the attack, which came days after its militants were severely defeated and driven from Abyan province, they said.
After its last stronghold in Abyan fell in the hands of the army, Al-Qaida vowed to step up its attacks against key US and Yemeni targets in retaliation.