Eight released and al-Ahdal may be next
SANAA, Yemen, June 2 (UPI) — Yemen has released eight al-Qaida prisoners who surrendered to the police after they escaped with 15 others from the central intelligence prison in February.
Opposition daily al-Thawra quoted an informed source as saying Friday that the inmates were released 15 days after they turned themselves in to the authorities upon the personal guarantee of Sheikh Tarek Fadli, a former senior official of the ruling General Congress Party and the founder of a key Islamic group in Yemen.
The release was based on the fact that no court rulings were issued against the prisoners, due to lack of evidence of their involvement in terrorist attacks.
The newspaper, mouthpiece of the Popular Union Forces Party, said a ninth prisoner, identified as Abdullah Ahmed Yarimi, was transferred to an intelligence prison in the province of Hadida in western Yemen for possible interrogation by Saudi and U.S. inspectors on suspicion of involvement in bombings that rocked Saudi Arabia, targeting residential buildings and foreign interests.
It also quoted “well-informed sources” as saying that Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, al-Qaida’s number two man in Yemen, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison by the state security court, may be released soon.
According to the sources, the authorities consider the time Ahdal has spent in prison since his arrest in 2003 as sufficient.
Other opposition newspapers indicated that the authorities released dozens of al-Qaida members last April on the orders of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
HT Vital Perspective who says: Discomforting news from opposition parties in Yemen — reports have surfaced, that if true the U.S. should be calling their ambassador into the State Department today, that al-Qaeda prisoners are being released under the orders of the government.
You would think but no, everybody’s playing the game. Saleh releases them and then lets the Marines search for them.
