al-Qaeda prisoners get help [Archives:2002/26/Front Page]

A committee to defend the Yemeni prisoners suspected of having link to al-Qaeda was established last Wednesday. It will represent all those detainees either in Yemen or in the US base in Guantanomo.
MP Mohammed Naji Allaw told the Yemen Times it is against law and constitution to keep people in prison without trail or legal warrant. He added that it is also against law to hide detainees and prevent their relatives from visiting them. The committee includes representatives for the National Authority for Rights & Liberties, as well as MPs, advocates, journalists and other human rights activists. One of the first actions of the committee will be to officially present a letter to the Interior Minister, Dr. Rasheed al-Alimi, questioning him about the detainees, their prisons, the nature of the charges and why they have not been bought to court.
Dr. Allaw said the committee has also distributed its address so that relatives of detainees can contact them. We are to get official authorization from their families so as to be able to defend them before court, Dr Allaw added. With regards to the detainees outside Yemen he said the committee will work together with an international committee which has been recently set up to defend Arab detainees in Guantanomo .
At present there are over 85 Yemeni detainees in Guantanomo. The number of alleged al-Qaeda members being detained in Yemen is still unknown. If official sources may be believed they number less than a hundred. On other hand Sheik Abdullah al-Ahmar alleges that some hundreds are being illegally held whilst an al-Qaeda sympathizers group recently demanded the release of 173 al-Qaeda members. There are also reports that a number of arrested al- Qaeda members have been lost.

——
[archive-e:26-v:2002-y:2002-d:2002-06-24-p:./2002/iss26/front.htm]