Yemeni socialist official surrenders

A source at the Yemeni opposition said that the official of the Socialist Party in the province of Hadramout, Hassan Ba'oum, surrendered to the court in the region in the company of lawyers.

The Yemeni authorities have been searching for Ba'oum since April 1998 under the charges of provoking violence after he organized a demonstration in the capital of the province, al-Mukalla, during which one person was killed and two wounded following clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

The Socialist Party used to hold power in the former Southern Yemen before the two parts of the country were united in 1990. The party in 1994 carried out a separatist (cessation) attempt that was doomed to failure after the deployment of governmental forces led by current Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The main leaders of the party live in exile. Most of them were sentenced to death in absentia.