Sanaa, 26 Sept. (AKI) - The Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has announced a general amnesty for the hundreds of Zaidi Shiite rebels in jail for clashing with the security forces in April this year. The prisoners - followers of radical cleric and former MP Hussein al-Houthi, who was killed in clashes a year ago after a three month uprising - will be pardoned and released, according to Saudi newspaper Arab News. President Saleh made the announcement in a speech marking the celebration of the 26th September revolution which ended religious rule in Yemen, turning it into a republic. "We have declared an amnesty for the supporters of Hussein al-Houthi," Saleh said in the speech, which was broadcast by state television. "We have pardoned them, despite the blood that has been spilt from 700 young men who were killed because of al-Houthi."
Hundreds of al-Houthi's followers and members of the security forces died in the three month uprising in the north of Yemen in summer 2004, which ended with al-Houthi's death. However, violence flared up again when his 81-year-old father Badruddin al-Houthi led another rebellion against government forces earlier this year. It was put down mid-April, though there is reported to be continued violence in the northern Saada province, where residents say thousands of homes have been destroyed in the fighting. There are mixed reports over Badruddin's fate. The government said he had agreed to stop fighting, but there were also rumours that he died after being injured in a gun battle in June.
Influential Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has accused the Yemeni government of waging "a kind of war" against the Zaidis. In addition to the violent put down of the rebellion, the government has also closed down 4,000 "underground" Zaidi schools, branding them breeding grounds for extremism.
Yemen's Zaidi Shiites are thought to make up around a third of the country's approximately 20 million population, while moderate Shafi Sunnis make up the rest. Al-Houthi was said to have wanted to install Shiite clerical rule in Yemen, and was also deeply opposed to Israel and America. Yemen is a key partner in the 'war on terror' and has received US help in its effort to rid itself of its reputation as a haven for Islamic extremists.
Preachers Yahya Hussein al-Dailami and Muhammad Ahmad Muftah are both included in the amnesty, government officials said. They were sentenced at the end of May to death and a ten year jail sentence respectively for supporting al-Houthi's rebellion. Judge Muhammad Ali Luqman, who was also given a ten year sentence last year on the same charge.
President Saleh also announced that the government will compensate the family of Zaidi Imam Ahmed Hameed al-Deen, Yemen's last Islamic leader. His assets were seized after the army coup on 26 September 1962 which ended 44 years of Zaidi rule in the country. He died in exile around three years ago, and the rest of his family is scattered throughout the Middle East and Britain.