USS Cole appeals trial opens in Yemen

The appeals trial of six men convicted in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole opened in the Yemeni capital San’a today with prosecutors demanding the execution of two defendants who escaped the death penalty.

The first convictions in the al-Qaida attack that killed 17 American sailors were handed down in September, with four Yemenis sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. Two men – Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden, and Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi – were sentenced to death.