The defendants -- 11 Yemenis, four Syrians and a Saudi -- are accused of carrying out 13 armed attacks over the past two years on foreign targets, government establishments and oil facilities in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

These include a January 2008 shooting that killed two Belgian female tourists, a March 2008 attack targeting the US embassy and a rocket strike on a compound housing American oil workers.

Three of the defendants, all of whom were present in the dock, pleaded innocent of the charges against them and demanded recompense for what they called moral and financial harm incurred on them.

"I demand that the charges against me be dropped -- the charges I have never heard of until I was interrogated," said Hossam al-Amoudi, who was arrested in Syria on returning from Iraq.

The other accused have previously denied the charges levelled against them.

The court is expected to issue its verdict on July 13.

A Yemeni security court in February sentenced three members of another alleged Al-Qaeda cell to seven years each in jail for plotting attacks and possessing explosives.

Sixteen suspected members of an Al-Qaeda cell on trial in Yemen said they have started a hunger strike in protest at being tortured and refused to talk at a court hearing on Tuesday.

The group, whose trial opened on March 11, is accused of a spate of attacks against foreign targets in the impoverished Arabian peninsula state.

Rawi Ahmad al-Sairi, 22, said the prison's administration did not allow them to pray or read the Quran, Islam's holy book.

"This prison is harsher than Guantanamo (Bay detention centre on Cuba), and we suffer various forms of torture," Sairi said, after which the group remained silent for the entire two hours of the hearing.

Judge Mohsen Elwan set March 24 for the next hearing and ordered an investigation into the prison conditions.

The defendants -- 11 Yemenis, four Syrians and a Saudi -- denied the charges at the trial's start.

They are accused of carrying out 13 armed operations against foreign targets and oil installations in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

These include a January 2008 shooting that killed two Belgian female tourists, a March 2008 attack targeting the US embassy, and a rocket strike on a compound housing American oil workers.

A Yemeni security court last month sentenced three members of another alleged Al-Qaeda cell to seven years in jail for plotting attacks and possession of explosives.

AFP