Judge apologises over case of Saleh assassination suspects

Compound of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh was bombed in June 2011 The head of Sana\'s Criminal Court has apologised for taking on the case of 57 people accused of attempting to assassinate Yemen\'s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh during popular protests against his rule in June 2011.
The trial of those suspected of bombing the presidential palace mosque, injuring the former president, was scheduled to take place on Monday.
At a meeting in Sanaa, Judge Hilal Mahfal blamed his decision not to pursue the case on a media campaign by Saleh\'s supporters accusing him of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which he said was an attempt to discredit the Yemeni judiciary.
The judge said he took the decision to apologise for considering the case in order to reassure different parties concerned and gain their confidence.  
Yemen\'s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his party accuse a number of military and tribal figures of conspiring to plant the bomb, including army general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and tribal leader Hamid al-Ahmar, in addition several of his brothers.
Meanwhile, U.S Ambassador to Sanaa Gerald Firestein praised the Yemeni government for apologising for the wars that they launched in South Yemen, describing it as an important step.
Yemen’s government apologised to southern secessionists on Wednesday for a war launched against them by former president Saleh in 1994.
Speaking at a press conference in Sanaa, Firestein said he appreciated Yemen’s efforts to combat terrorism, adding that the extremist group al-Qaeda had been weakened.
But the ambassador expressed concern over the sectarian tension between Houthis and Salafists in the Yemeni capital.
Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi vowed on Friday to continue his war against armed militants from the radical Islamist group, and defended US drone strikes targeting the al-Qaeda members, saying the operations were part of a security cooperation agreement between Sanaa and Washington.