Prisoners’ Affairs: We are Still Awaiting the Release of 72 Prisoners

YemenExtra

M.A.

Head of the National Committee for Prisoners Affairs, Abdulqader Al-Mortadha confirmed that the forces of aggression did not release 72 prisoners from the Army and Popular Committees, while saying they would release them out of the 200 prisoners.

“We are still waiting for the forces of aggression to execute the rest of the announcement of the release of 200 prisoners of the Army and Popular Committees,” Al-Mortadha said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The head of the National Committee for Prisoners Affairs said on November 28, that 128 prisoners and detainees have been received from the International Committee of the Red Cross released by the Saudi authorities. “This is the first Saudi response to the Sana’a initiatives,” he said, hoping that a full prisoner exchange deal will be concluded from both sides.

He stressed that the Sana’a authorities have made many initiatives and released more than 500 prisoners and detainees unilaterally on humanitarian grounds.

“We have received the prisoners’ lists and we have confirmed 128 names that are in our list of prisoners, but for the rest of the 72 names, they were not found,” he said, pointing out that Saudi Arabia has tens of thousands of detainees and prisoners of various nationalities and “we cannot receive any prisoners whose identity we do not know.”

He added that among those who were received are detained at airports controlled by the aggression forces, adding that the prisoners, including 30 prisoners from the fronts of the interior and more than 10 people were arrested from the roads, while the rest of those released were captured from the fronts, including wounded and disabled.

Regarding the cases of the released prisoners, Al-Mortadha said, “Unfortunately, there are very critical health cases, some of them disabled and paralyzed, including many amputees and also a lot of wounded and disabled,” pointing out that there are medical procedures and all prisoners will be examined, treated and then handed over to their families.

“They will have meetings through channels to fully disclose the cases of all prisoners,” he added.

The 128 prisoners released by Saudi Arabia arrived onboard special aircraft of the International Committee of the Red Cross, to Sana’a airport on November 28.

The ICRC sees this release as a positive step and hopes that it will cause more detainees to be released and repatriated.

Almasirah English