Al-Murtadha reveals Saudi control over the file of prisoners in coalition-backed government

SANAA, Jun. 14 (YPA) – The head of the National Committee for Prisoners Affairs, Abdul Qadir Al-Murtadha, offered to conduct a comprehensive local deal to exchange prisoners with the US-Saudi mercenaries, including the senior leaders of them.

Al-Murtadha, in exclusive statements to Almasirah, revealed that the Saudi regime is the one who leads the prisoner exchange negotiations, and that the Saudi intelligence officers were present in the negotiation sessions in Amman.

Head of Prisoners Affairs also pointed out that the Saudi Operations Room also issued instructions to stop any local prisoner exchange deals, especially if large numbers were included in the deal. He mentioned that the local deals were able to liberate more than 9,000 prisoners from both sides.

Al-Murtadha also revealed that the head of the delegation of the other party did not pay any attention to the release of Hadi’s brother in the last round in Amman, but rather he focused on the release of the leader of the Islah Party, Muhammad Qahtan.

He said: We went to Amman rounds to implement the exchange issue, but we encountered rejection of all the solutions that were agreed and signed, and we did not find, in the negotiation rounds, the one who had complete authority to make the decision.

Regarding the UN role, the head of the National Committee of Prisoners explained that the United Nations had significantly weakened its role in the recent rounds, and was unable to obligate the other party to implement what had been agreed upon. It deals with the prisoners’ issue as a secondary issue for humanitarian considerations and its effects on other issues.

“The Sanaa side has informed the United Nations of its readiness to release the Sudanese prisoners in exchange for the release of our prisoners held by the Saudis and the Emiratis, but without a response,” he added

The head of the National Prisoners Committee concluded by calling the United Nations to continue presenting proposals and work on solving the issue, and the other party to respond to the all-for-all initiative if they were keen on their prisoners and on ending this humanitarian crisis.

E.M