SANAA: A former Yemeni ambassador who is a southern secessionist activist received a five-year jail term on Sunday for "harming national unity."
Qassem Askar, 58, an ambassador until 1994, was found guilty of "committing crimes aimed at harming national unity, sedition, endangering the security and stability of society and spreading false rumors," according to the verdict.
When the judge asked if he wished to appeal the verdict, Askar replied, "There is no justice in the first place, so how can I appeal the verdict?"
The activist who comes from Lahij province near the southern port city of Aden — the capital of former South Yemen before unity in 1990 — had refused to respond to the accusations against him.
"I have been questioned about the peaceful struggle of the people of the south which is being confronted by military suppression," he wrote last June instead of addressing the accusations.
He added that the court, specialized in terrorism and state security issues, was unqualified to hear his "political" case.
Pro-independence demonstrations have multiplied in the oil-rich south amid a worsening economic situation and complaints of discrimination in favor of northerners by the Sanaa government.
Some 28 mourners were wounded Saturday as police opened fire on the funeral procession of a southern separatist activist in the southern town of Daleh, a Southern Movement official said.
South Yemen was independent from 1967 until 1990 when it united with the north. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived conflict that ended when the south was overrun by northern troops.
