Posted: 12/16/05
Man convicted in missionary murders executed
By Robert Marus
Associated Baptist Press
SAN'A, Yemen (ABP)–A Muslim convicted of plotting the December 2002 terror attack that killed three Southern Baptist missionaries in Yemen was executed, several news sources reported.
Ali al-Jarallah died at the hands of a firing squad in a prison in San'a, Yemen's capital, the Associated Press reported. The gunman, Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, is still in prison.
Yemeni officials said al-Jarallah masterminded the Dec. 30, 2002, attack on the former Jibla Baptist Hospital in Jibla, Yemen.
Kamel burst into a hospital staff meeting and opened fire, killing hospital director William Koehn, physician Martha Myers and administrator Kathleen Gariety.
The missionaries were in the process of working out logistics for the transfer of the hospital's ownership to the Yemeni government from its founders, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board. The institution now operates as Peace Hospital.
Al-Jarallah also was convicted of murdering a Yemeni Socialist Party official.
The Yemeni government suspected him of other terror plots, including being an associate of the international Al Qaeda terrorist group.
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