Amnesty International Calls for Immediate Release of Yemeni Journalist Nabil Al-Sadawi
Amnesty International has called on the Ansar Allah Allah (Houthi) group to immediately release journalist Nabil Al-Sadawi without conditions after spending eight years in prison. In a statement issued on Thursday, the organization's branch in the Gulf, based in Beirut, stated, "Today marks the end of the prison sentence for journalist Nabil Al-Sadawi, who was sentenced to eight years after an unjust trial. We call on the authorities in the Houthi-controlled territory to release him immediately." Al-Sadawi was arrested on September 21, 2015, and was accused by the Houthis of committing several serious crimes, including working for Saudi Arabia. The Houthi group has kidnapped and detained dozens of journalists since their takeover of Sanaa in 2014.
The US envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, has called on Iran to "support peace efforts" in Yemen and play a positive role in pushing for ending the civil war Yemen has been seeing since 201. Lenderking told the media, "We are very keen to see Iran support peace efforts, and I know that many parties are talking to the Iranians, and we are talking to those parties." He denied direct talks between Washington and Tehran regarding Yemen. Lenderking said Iran has fueled the conflict in Yemen for a long time by smuggling weapons, violating international Security Council resolutions.
The local authority in the archipelago of Socotra, located in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Yemen, decided on Thursday to prohibit the entry of the Qat plant. The decision, made by the governor of Socotra, Raafat Ali Al-Thaqali, bans the entry of Qat into Socotra through ports and airports. According to the governor's statement, the purpose of this decision is "to preserve the environment of Socotra, its culture, its youth, and their future."The suppliers and sellers of Qat would be monitored, and the strictest penalties would be imposed on all violators. Qat is commonly consumed in social gatherings every day in Yemen.
Five children were seriously injured Thursday, some of them after a projectile exploded in the Atfah district in Al-Bayda province (central Yemen). Local sources said that a group of children found a shell from the war's remnants and carried it. It exploded, injuring five of them, the sources said. The sources indicated that one of the children lost one of his eyes and had one of his hands amputated due to the explosion. Thousands of landmines have been planted in Yemen since the breakout of the war in 2015.
Head of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi on Thursday received Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly session in New York, the Kingdom's foreign ministry said. The two sides reviewed ways to strengthen and develop ties and discussed efforts to reach a peace settlement in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has been pushing for a political solution to the conflict in Yemen, and it recently held direct talks with the Houthi group to pave the way for peace.
