Sanaa, 13 Oct. (AKI) - Two Yemenis who died in a suicide bombing in Baghdad in July were among hundreds of Islamic extremists released from prison in Yemen since 2003 under a "dialogue" programme run by a senior judge, Yemeni newspapers report. More than 360 prisoners have been released under Hamoud Abdulhamid al-Hitar's initiative, which involves holding sessions designed to change the mindsets of militants by showing that their violent actions are at odds with their faith, in return for provisional release. Commenting on claims that prisoners released under his scheme went on to become suicide bombers, al-Hitar said there was no proof the men have carried out any suicide attacks. However, he did admit that the security forces had caught dozens of young Yemenis heading to Iraq in the last two months alone. Last month a study by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) stated that even though "no one knows the number of active and part-time insurgents, paid agents and sympathisers," they estimate there to be around 30,000 insurgents in Iraq, of whom some 3,000 are foreign fighters. They believe 500 of these are Yemeni. "We are not interested in dealing with issues in Iraq," al-Hitar said of his dialogue programme, but added, "We try to tell them that it's not a duty to go to Iraq."
Al-Hitar has become renowned for the methods of "peaceful persuasion" he has used with al-Qaeda militants and is even reported to have been courted by European police in their bid to find successful strategies against Islamic terrorism. Explaining his strategy, al-Hitar says that as many militants were ordinary people who had been led astray, he believes that just as they have been brain-washed with al-Qaeda doctrines, they can be taught more moderate ideas.
However, one politician from the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party, Mohammed Salah, criticised the Yemeni government's handling of terrorists, saying it uses the dialogue programme to "get people to support and work for the authorities." "The government deals with terrorists in a way to keep them under their control, to use them when it needs to," he said.