 The United States has officially asked Yemen to arrest a prominent scholar whom Washington accuses of funneling funds to terror groups, Yemeni state media said yesterday. Sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, 56, is listed by the United Nations and the United States as one of the financiers of terror activities.
“The American side has asked the Yemeni government to arrest Sheikh Al-Zindani, freeze his assets and prevent him from traveling abroad,” said the Defense Ministry’s newspaper ‘26 September’.
| And keep him away from cell phones. |
Quoting official sources, the paper said President Ali Abdullah Saleh has received a message from US President George W. Bush in which he criticized Saleh for letting Al-Zindani join the official delegation that accompanied him to the OIC summit held in Makkah last December. “The message noted that Al-Zindani is listed on the UN list of terror financiers, and that taking him abroad as part of an official delegation is a violation of the UN resolutions,” said the paper.
It added that Bush warned Saleh that such personal ties with Al-Zindani “could harm joint efforts of both countries (US and Yemen) and their partnership in the fight against terrorism.”
According to the report, the Yemeni government asked the United States to present “clear evidence” proving the charges against Al-Zindani before Yemen could take any measure against him.
| So that Zindani can kill the ones who squealed on him. |
The US Treasury Department added Al-Zindani in February 2004 to the list of people suspected of supporting terrorist activities, dubbing him as “a loyalist to Osama Bin Laden and supporter of Al-Qaeda.” It accused him of playing a key role in the purchase of weapons on behalf of the terror network and other terrorists. A senior Yemeni government official said yesterday that the government could take any measure against Al-Zindani except handing him over to the United States. “Whatever happens, we would not hand him over to the Americans. It is against our constitution,” the official told Arab News, asking anonymity.
| "And you know how important the law is to a Yemeni!" |
Al-Zindani, who chairs the central committee of YemenÂ’s biggest opposition party (Islah), has abruptly changed his flamboyant ways of speech and now rarely attends public meetings after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
The United States accuses Al-Zindani, who runs Sanaa-based Al-Iman Islamic University, of supporting “terrorist causes”. |