Two Australians Released Unconditionally
The Ayub brothers will be staying in Yemen to continue their studies. The German has already been released, leaving five incarerated and pending trial.
TWO young Australian men detained as suspected members of a terrorist group were released in Yemen at the weekend after authorities decreed they had no case to answer.
Accused of links to al-Qaeda and arms smuggling to the latest jihadist hot spot — Somalia — Mohammed and Abdullah Ayub were arrested on October 17 in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, with another Australian, Marek Samulski. Mr Samulski, still in custody, was visited by Australian officials at the weekend.
The Ayub brothers are sons of Abdul Rahim Ayub, the man credited with setting up a Jemaah Islamiah cell in Australia in the 1990s. Five other men, including a Dane, a Briton and a German, were also arrested in what lawyers for the Australian men insisted was a general round-up of foreigners.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman last night confirmed the Ayubs had been “released unconditionally”.
Sydney lawyer Adam Houda, who acts for them, said the two men would be staying in Yemen, where they have been for more than two years, to continue their religious and language studies.
He said their release had left “eggs on the faces” of those who had made “poisonous allegations” about them.
The mother of the men, Rabiah Hutchison, a Mudgee-born convert to Islam who divorced Ayub and worked in the Taliban-era Afghanistan as a midwife and nurse, remains in Sydney after ASIO confiscated her passport, although she says she does not know why. Ms Hutchison said her sons — Abdullah, 21, and Mohammed, 19 — were innocent and were being unfairly vilified.
The third Australian: Yemeni authorities told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade three weeks ago they were about to conclude their investigations into Samulski and have told the Australian consulate several times he would soon be freed. Mr Hopper says he believes his release has been stalled by internal politics. While Mr Hopper has been refused access to his client, he was happy with his treatment by Yemeni authorities and the Australian Government.
