SANAA (AFP) – A Sanaa court sentenced two Yemenis to death on Tuesday for spying for Iran and acquitted a third for lack of proof.

Abdul Karim Lalji, 33, Hani Deen Mohammad, 31, and Iskandar Abdo, 57, were arrested in the southern city of Aden for “illegal contact,” and went on trial on October 11.

Proceedings were held in camera after the court banned the media from covering the trial.

The men handed over “information, documents and photos relating to military secrets and the country’s political, security and economic situation, to the detriment of Yemen,” according to the charge sheet.

Abdo was acquitted while the other two were sentenced to death.

Their lawyer Shatha Nasser told AFP she will appeal the verdict.

Lalji, like Mohammad, received the verdict calmly but said he considered it “unjust” and was counting on the appeal to overturn the sentence.

The court ruled that Lalji, an owner of a printing press in Aden, and Mohammad, a coast guard official, provided in the past years “reports and precise information concerning the coast guards, the political situation and the military, as well as the travels of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh.”

The document said the two men were recruited in 1997 by Iran’s trade attache in Sanaa, identified only as Mehdi, from whom they have received payment for their services.

Their activities were detected in mid-2008.