Following the appeal of the families of hundreds of suspect detainees 104 detainees released [Archives:2002/31/Front Page]

Reliable sources told Yemen Times that more than 104 Yemeni detainees were released last week by Yemeni authorities. The 104 released men were previously arrested under the pretext of tracking down terrorist activists in Yemen. This came after several appeals by families of the imprisoned suspects and intervention of a number of NGOs. Al-Qaeda sympathizers had previously issued statements threatening to spill blood of top security officers and commit acts of sabotage against the US interests in the country in case the government refused to release a list of 173 detainees.
On the other hand, the Qaeda suspect who escaped recently from prison was captured while last week hiding in one of his friends houses in Aden. This comes as signal that security forces have started using more efficient investigation techniques to track down suspects.
At the same time, the Yemeni authorities have adopted new legal measures to tackle the detainees problems. Official resources said that the Yemeni authorities have conducted an accurate and comprehensive investigation with regard to al-Qaeda sympathizers suspected of having perpetrated terrorist acts. In this respect, those who are involved in terrorist activities will be judicially tried. Those who are not found guilty will be released.
This has come after the FBI dropped 6 persons out of a list of 17 suspects thought to have been involved in terrorist activities.
The list was reduced when three convicts that were detained by the Political Security Office a year ago were released. Basheer Ali Ashedadi, Ahmed al-Khedr al-Baidhani, and Esam Ahmed Dabwan al-Mekhlafi were actually detained before the September 11 attacks in the US.
The destiny of three other convicts has been still unknown. Those three are Abdulaziz Mohammed Saleh, Moshhour A. Mogbill, and Ameen Saad Mohammed. Names of other suspect terrorists have been mentioned by the FBI including, Ramzi bin Ashaiba, Fowaz al-Boraee, Ayaan al-Waeli, Abdurab al-Saifi, Bassam Annahdi, Omar al-Hubaishi and Sameer al-Maqtari, who are believed to have links to the 11 September attacks.
Three more convicts were also released by the Yemeni authorities. Ali Mohmmed, Mohammed al-Bokhait, Mostafa Shaher who belonged to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army were convicted of robbery and banditry and were sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison.

——
[archive-e:31-v:2002-y:2002-d:2002-07-29-p:./2002/iss31/front.htm]