President issues directives to send Political Security prisoners to justice [Archives:2004/713/Local News]

Hassan Al-Zaidi
Sheikh al-Ahmed, Member of Parliament, revealed that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had lately directed the Head of the Central Apparatus of Political Security to refer all detainees at the prisons of the Central Apparatus Political Security to the judiciary, after their issue was raised in Parliament last Saturday.
Information received by Yemen Times indicates that the Central Apparatus of Political Security is at the present time preparing names of persons detained on terror charges, who number over 190 detainees.
The president last year gave orders for the release of 34 detainees arrested on charges of links to al-Qaeda after they renounced their extremist ideas. In addition, directives were issued in mid November for the release of about 197 prisoners, although the final number released is unclear. There is information that some detainees refused the conditions for their release, the renunciation of their extremist ideas, stipulated by the dialogue committee headed by Judge al-Hittar.
Some information indicates the possibility of postponing the referral of some detainees to the judiciary, especially those on terrorist charges including elements like Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, known as Abu A'sem, and those detained on charges of involvement in the attack on the American destroyer USS Cole in October 2000 in Aden.
No security information has been released on the fate of al-Banna, who was recently arrested and is considered one of the important suspects wanted by the United States. Some information was leaked on the possibility of an exchange between Yemen and America in which the latter would hand over Sheikh al-Mouayad in return for al-Banna, a Yemeni holding the American nationality.
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