Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni court of appeals on Sunday sentenced a former air force pilot to death for the murder of a Jewish man, court sources said.

The court in the north-western province of Amran convicted Abdul- Aziz al-Abdi, a 40-year-old retired Yemeni Air Force pilot, of premeditated murder, the sources told the German Press Agency dpa.

Al-Abdi has confessed to shooting dead Moshe al-Nahari, a member of the Jewish minority in the north-western town of Raida last December.

In March, a first instance court in Amran convicted al-Abdi of the murder, but said he was "mentally unstable" when he committed the crime. The court also ordered him to pay 27,000-dollars in so-called blood money.

The crime triggered anger among members of Yemen's Jewish community, estimated at around 400 people. (dpa)