Yemen Disputes Reports of Released al Qaeda
They were other Islamists who have been dialoged, and all is well, according to Yemen Online. (If Nabi and Fahdli were there, then we have a pretty good idea.)
YemenOnline. Feb 10, 2009 – Sources told YemenOnline on Tuesday that none of the people released in the past two days were members of al-Qaida. Sources added that news and reports circulated lately regarding this are inaccurate and that the released prisoners belong to other Islamic groups who rejected terrorism after Yemeni authorities had conducted an intellectual dialogue with them.
More from CNN:
(CNN) — Yemen has denied “exaggerated and false” media reports that it recently released 170 al Qaeda suspects from its prisons, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by its embassy in Washington.
An unnamed security services official in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa told Agence France-Press on Sunday that Yemeni authorities had directives to release 176 people with links to the al Qaeda terrorist network. Of those, 95 had already been released, he told AFP.
The Yemeni Embassy said authorities have released 108 prisoners, but they were “not affiliated in any way to al Qaeda.”
“The released prisoners have been accused in the past of violating Yemeni laws and were tried in the courts,” the embassy said. “The majority of them have served their sentences in prison. The government of Yemen will continue to closely monitor all newly released prisoners.”
