Yemeni presidential pardon expected for Saadah rebels

Yemeni official sources expected a conditional presidential pardon to be issued for the leaders of the armed rebels in Sasdah governorate and the followers of al-Shabab al-Mu'nim (the believing youth) banned organization, in coincidence with the celebration of the national day in Yemen by the end of this month.

The sources which are close to the Yemeni Presidency said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to stop chasing operations against the religion scholar Bader Eddine al-Houthi and Sheikh Abdullah al-Ruzami and their followers of the gunmen hiding at fortified areas in al-Naqa, the border place with Saudi Arabia.

The sources said that President Saleh received a message from al-Houthi and al-Ruzami in which they proposed "to hand over themselves and to be ready to drop the weapons and give up violence and attacks against citizens and members of the armed forces, the security forces and public properties." The two men expressed in the message dated May 10 "loyalty to the state" denying their rejection to the republican system and the President. They stressed, on the other hand, that "if repression will not be lifted from them and acts of killing, imprisonment, and confiscation of properties continue, the problem will not be solved, rather gets complicated."

The sources added that the carrier of the message Sheikh Shaje' Muhammad Shaje' received a positive response from President Saleh including his consent to halt the military chasing of the rebels and to stop targeting the military leadership and the presence of al-Houthi and al-Razami and many of their leaderships organizations in the capital Sanaa.