JERUSALEM (JTA) — An appeals court in Yemen upheld a death sentence for a citizen convicted of spying for Israel.
The court on Saturday upheld the conviction of Bassam al-Haidari, who was sentenced to death in March 2009 after being accused of contact with an enemy state for sending an e-mail in 2008 to then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Haidari sent an e-mail that read, "We are the Jihad Organization and you are Jews but you are honest and we are ready for anything," the Yemen News Agency reported Saturday.
In response, according to the news agency, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Israel was willing to "support you as agents."
Two others were convicted in the case; all three defendants had pleaded not guilty.
The sentence for one man was reduced from five years to three years. The court upheld a three-year sentence for the third defendant.
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