The Saudi regime didn’t release the prisoners of war: Prisoners’ Committee

YemenExtra

The National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs said on Friday that following the announcement by the Saudi regime of releasing 163 prisoners from the army and popular committees, we have contracted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to make the necessary arrangements.

“Three days after the alleged announcement, we met with ICRC’s representatives who had visited the prisoners, and found out that the number of the prisoners to be freed are only 126, not 163 as declared by the Saudi regime,” the committee said in a statement to Yemen News Agency (SABA).

After receiving the lists and comparing them with our database of prisoners, we discovered that all the names on the lists were not for prisoners of war, except for only five of them and four were for fishermen abducted from the Red Sea and the rest of the names were unknown to us, the National Committee for Prisoners”.

“We welcome the release of any Yemeni,” the Committee said. “However, they must coordinate with the relevant authorities of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and Human Rights.”

The Committee’s statement made clear that nine of the detainees were foreigners of African nationalities.

The National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs said that it is responsible for monitoring and freeing all army and popular committees’ prisoners. “On this basis, we have received the nine prisoners and abductees,” the Committee said.

It has also confirmed that the prisoner file is a human file, which must not be exploited. “We cannot allow the Saudi regime to politicize it and target the Yemeni workers or detainees of various nationalities and present them as prisoners of war.”

The Committee added: “During this year, we have taken several unilateral humanitarian initiatives, releasing more than 400 prisoners of war from the other side because we believe it is a humanitarian file.”