Al-Qaeda detainees’ situation discussed in parliament [Archives:2002/39/Local News]

MOHAMMED AL-QADHI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
An 11-member parliamentary committee started Wednesday investigating into the question of Yemeni detainees suspected of having link to al-Qaeda network and of carrying out terrorist acts. The committee started listening to complaints of the detainees’ relatives and protest to their detention without any legal warrants or trials. They also complain that they have been denied access to see their relatives in the Political Security Organization prisons. Some families still do not know the whereabouts of their relatives. They also demand the Yemeni government to tell them about the situation of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay as well as others detained in the USA or Europe.
The detainees’ families started pouring into the Yemeni parliament headquarters in Sana’a to give details about their people to the committee that was set up by the parliament on request by 25 MPs. The committee is expected to present a report to the government of Yemen asking for the release of the detainees or presenting them to court.
The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (NODRF), chaired by Mohammed Allaw, MP and advocate, has been very active in following up the situation of the detainees. Despite of the authorities’ of holding 85 persons for security measures only, NODRF disclosed earlier that the number of arrestees was over 110. It also presented a list of detainees names and other information
about them. The NODRF also disclosed that some detainees had been subjected to various forms of torture and harassment.
Zakiah Mohsen, mother of detainee Abdullah Saleh al-Hakem, said her son was captured two years ago, following the USS Cole bombing without any charges. She said his crime was that he had got a beard. She also added that she and his two kids and wife had no one to support them. She said she visits him on Thursdays and Fridays but she can not ask him about his situation as they are both accompanied by security guards.
Abdullah Saleh al-Haj, cousin of arrestee Saleh Mane’a al-Najar, says these people are arrested to appease the US. He confirmed that his cousin used to travel to Pakistan for business. His uncle, Ali Muzaid al-Jamah, said he had stayed for one day in front of the Central prison of Aden, asking for meeting with his relative but to no avail. His mother, according to them, can visit him but he asked her in her last visit not to go to him anymore as he is in a very bad psychological condition. His uncle said ” We love the US people but we do not like their government which is under the control of the Zionists.”
Other relatives confirmed that when they asked the people in charge to release them or send them for trial, they would answer by saying those detainees were not subjected to no legal measures.

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