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Yemeni officials: USS Cole mastermind still in custody

  • Story Highlights
  • Yemeni official: Al-Badawi was meeting with family before returning to prison
  • Interior Ministry official, CNN source both say al-Badawi in custody
  • Al-Badawi convicted in 2004 of masterminding, assisting in USS Cole bombing
  • U.S. officials berated Yemen last week upon reports that al-Badawi was released
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(CNN) -- Jamal al-Badawi, one of the masterminds of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was still in Yemeni custody Monday, authorities said, responding to reports that he had been freed.

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Jamal al-Badawi, a mastermind in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, remains in prison, officials said Monday.

A Yemeni Interior Ministry official said al-Badawi was in prison Monday, and a report from the state-run news agency, SABA, quoted a security source as saying the alleged bomber remained in custody.

Additionally, an official from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen reported seeing al-Badawi in his jail cell Monday, another official with the State Department told CNN.

The Interior Ministry official said that when Al-Badawi surrendered earlier this month, he asked to meet with his family before going back to prison.

Al-Badawi was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004 of plotting and assisting in the suicide bombing of the U.S. guided-missile destroyer in the port of Aden. Seventeen U.S. soldiers were killed and 39 more were wounded.

His sentence was commuted to 15 years in prison, of which he has served seven.

One of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, al-Badawi escaped from prison in 2003, was recaptured in 2004 and escaped again in 2006. According to SABA, he turned himself in October 16.

U.S. officials blasted Yemeni officials Friday after news reports surfaced that al-Badawi had been freed and was receiving visitors at his home.

The news reports said that he had been freed after renouncing terrorism and pledging allegiance to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Presidential contender Rudy Giuliani urged the U.S. to cancel aid to Yemen. The retired commander of the Cole called the report "disappointing."

Justice Department officials said it was "dismayed and deeply disappointed" and that the move did not represent the ongoing cooperation among U.S. and Yemeni counterterrorism officials.

Added a U.S. law enforcement official on condition of anonymity: "He's got American blood on his hands. He confessed to what he did ... and they let him go." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

CNN's Caroline Faraj, Terry Frieden and Kelli Arena contributed to this report.

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