Griffiths Praises Sana’a’s Decision to Release Saudi War Prisoners

YemenExtra

M.A.

United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths on Monday praised Sana’a’s decision to unilaterally release hundreds of war prisoners, including Yemenis fought in Saudi side and Saudi soldiers. The National Prisoners Committee hopes that this will lead to further progress in the prisoner exchange efforts.

Griffiths said in a tweet  that “the release of war prisoners by Sana’a would lead to further progress with regard to the prisoner exchange agreement.”

Head of the Committee for Prisoners Affairs, Abdul Qader Al-Murtada, announced earlier on Monday, an initiative by the United Nations to release 350 prisoners from the forces of Saudi-American aggression, including 3 Saudis. He said in a press conference in Sana’a that “we have submitted to the United Nations a unilateral initiative to release 350 prisoners and detainees included in the statements of the Swedish agreement of the other party.”

Al-Murtada stressed that this initiative will be implemented today under the auspices of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, both of which are the co-presidents on the implementation of the Stockholm agreement, noting that the initiative falls within the Stockholm agreement on prisoners. He pointed out that “this initiative proves our credibility and seriousness in the implementation of the agreement, and the forces of aggression must prove their seriousness by taking a similar step and engage in good faith and credibility in the implementation of the Stockholm agreement on prisoners.”

Al-Murtada explained that among the released prisoners are three Saudis who will be transferred by the International Committee of the Red Cross to their families in Saudi Arabia, pointing out that among the released prisoners all the prisoners who survived the prison Dhamar, which was targeted by the aggression airline early this month.

Al-Murtada asked the United Nations to press the other party to take a similar step, or to count a similar number of our prisoners in any future deal through them. He stressed that this initiative has been implemented due to the great delay in the implementation of the Stockholm agreement on prisoners, which the aggression forces seek to hinder continuously by rejecting all the initiatives and proposals put forward by the UN envoy to implement the Stockholm agreement. He stressed that the prisoners’ exchange deal is humanitarian and all parties should stay away from its politicization and complexity whatever the political, military and security developments.

This post originally ran on Almasirah English