In a statement by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the Italian press delegation today, he announced that the Al-Qaeda sympathizers, Islamic militants and terrorist suspects with no blood in their hands will be released during the holy month of Ramadan, a week from now. The president's announcement follows efforts by the Yemeni parliament, NGOs and Human Rights activists who lobbied for the protection of human rights and the release of prisoners.

It is expected that dozens of Al-Qaeda sympathizers, militants and terrorist suspects held by the government will be released after undergoing rehabilitation by religious scholars and signing the a declaration that they denounce terror and violence committed within the country or abroad. Other suspects involved in criminal or terrorist attacks will be transferred to the courts for prosecution.

Yemeni security authorities launched wide-scale arrests after the USS Cole bombing in October 2000, the attacks on the United States in September 2001 and the attack on the French Supertanker Limburg in October 2002. More than 120 suspects are held in the prisons.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the general prosecution to investigate into the religious fatwa accusing the socialist leader Yassin Saeed Noman, former Speaker of Parliament, of being an infidel, reliable sources close to the Yemeni presidency said. The fatwa, which was announced last week, has been attributed to Sheikh Abdulmajeed al-Zindani, head of Islah Consultative Council and rector of al-Eman University. The sources added that Saleh asked the general prosecution to investigate into the fatwa which al-Zindani has been accused to have issued on the basis that Dr. Noman used to say when he was running the parliament hearings "the rule is for the parliament members" in figuring out or voting on any issue while, according to al-Zindani, he should have said that "the rule is for God". The president's order came out as a result of a complaint filed by the Yemeni Socialist Party.

Yemen Times learnt that the denial made by al-Zindani last week was a political compromise on part of the opposition and coalition delegation members who met him at his house in the university campus.

Political sources say that al-Zindani refused to deny the allegation that he has issued the fatwa and told them that this was his opinion. But, when they warned him that this would provide an excuse for the US to ask for his extradition and trial, he told them that they can deny that he issued the fatwa. However, he never asked the media to quote his denial. Al-Zindani was a member of the Presidential Council after the unification.

A Yemen Socialist Party leader said "we do not have any comment but it is good if the government will start carrying out its responsibility."

Earlier, an American newspaper quoted Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, head of the committee conducting dialogues with al-Qaeda prisoners, as saying that the attackers of the USS Cole carried out their operation on the basis of a fatwa issued by al-Zindani. Al-Hitar later denied he said so. It was also reported that al-Zindani is one of the clerics wanted by the US for their link to al-Qaeda and that his university is producing extremists and fundamentalists.

The YSP condemned last week the religious edict or what it called "this ossified way of thinking and the continuation of these tactics of calling people infidel and assassinations, and violence, political terrorism and discrimination that do not accept freedom of opinion of people." The YSP called on the authorities to shoulder their legal responsibility towards the tendency of calling its prominent leaders infidels, and thus destabilizing security and peace. It also demanded that the fatwa issued during the civil war, which named all socialists as unbelievers and legalized all acts against them, as well as all cultural and military measures taken on the basis of this fatwa should be abolished. It urged all political forces in the country to eradicate this culture from school curricula, sermons of mosque preachers and mass media, and to enhance tolerance in society.

The assassin of Assistant Secretary General of the YSP, Jarallah Omar, was sentenced to death in mid-September. He said during the tribunal sessions that all socialists and secular people are infidels who deserve the death penalty. Ali Ahmad Jarallah based his assassination of Omar on the allegation that Omar demanded the abolishing of death penalty, which he described as an abuse of human rights.