Zeidi religious center reopens in Sanaa

Sources at the Yemeni presidency said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh gave orders to reopen a religious center in Sanaa, whose director was accused of provoking sectarianism.

The sources said that President Saleh took the said decision after he received a delegation from a Zeidi (a Shiite sect) man of religion who asked his permission to reopen Bader religious center, specializing in religious teaching of the Zeidi religion and asked Saleh to free the director of the center.

The Zeidi sect constitutes the majority of North West Yemeni population. The last Zeidi leader, Imam al-Bader, was toppled in 1962 by army officers, and this measure was followed by a civil war.

The Bader center was closed on September 26, 1998, and its director, Sheikh Murtada al-Mahtouri, was arrested when he delivered his Friday sermon in the center's mosque. He was accused of attacking the Yemeni Republican system and of provoking sectarianism.