"The 10 prisoners escaped after shooting dead three guards and wounding another three" at Amran prison, 50 kilometres (35 miles) north of Sanaa, he said, declining to be named or to give further details on the breakout.
He said Abdel Aziz Yahia al-Abdi, who was condemned to death in 2010 for the murder of a member of Yemen`s small Jewish community, was among the escapees. Masha Yaishe Nahari, a father of nine, was shot dead in December 2008.
The jailbreak comes at the start of a third month of anti-regime protests across Yemen aimed at ousting President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Abdi had initially been ordered to pay 27,500 dollars in blood money in place of being executed after medical reports had determined he was "mentally abnormal," before the supreme court stepped in.
A former air force pilot, Abdi said during his trial that he carried out the murder after warning Jews he would kill them unless they converted to Islam.
The case stoked fear in Yemen`s remaining Jewish community of only around 400 people, most of whom live in the Amran area. They numbered 60,000 in 1948 when the state of Israel was established. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
