YEMEN Press Agency

Saudi Arabia detains Islah leader residing in Mecca

SANAA,June 12 (YPA) – The security forces in Saudi Arabia arrested the leader of the Yemeni Islah Party (Brotherhood) Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Zubayri, who has been in the Kingdom for a period of time, on charges of communicating with Turkey.

The “Prisoners of Conscience” account in Saudi Arabia stated that the State Security Service, which is controlled by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, had kidnapped Al-Zubayri from his home in Mecca, since May 20.

The Prisoners of Conscience explained that “the arrest of the Yemeni Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Zubayri came against the background of his participation in the middle of Ramadan through a video call to a symposium in Turkey, hosted by the Yemeni Student Union.”

The Saudi regime has designated the Brotherhood a terrorist group, but it treats the Yemeni Islah Party as a staging tool to implement its agenda in Yemen by mobilizing its militants, according to political observers.

Observers saw that the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood preacher Al-Zubayri, who has been living in Saudi Arabia for some time, “may be a message to bring together the Brotherhood Islah to accept a Saudi-Emirati settlement on enabling transitional from southern Yemen.”

The Saudi authorities are launching campaigns of arrests and widespread violations against Arabs of multiple nationalities arbitrarily while they are on their lands, which makes them subject to enforced disappearance.

Among them are leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), who Mr. Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi launched an initiative to launch and offer to exchange them with prisoners and Saudi pilots captured in Yemen.

The Saudi regime launched a massive campaign in early September 2017 to arrest dozens of preachers, academics, economists, writers, activists, intellectuals, and others without clarifying their fate.

The detainees are still in prisons without being charged by the Saudi authorities or holding public trials for them accordingly, which led to observers describing Ibn Salman’s era of oppression and murder.