Barran Press
A large solidarity protest in the city of Seiyun, Hadhramaut Governorate (eastern Yemen), on Monday, May 20, 2024, called for urgent intervention to save politician and Islah Party leader Mohammed Qahtaan, who has been kidnapped for nine years in the prisons of the Houthi group, which is internationally classified as a terrorist organization.
A statement issued by the protest, reviewed by "Barran Press," said that "Mohammed Qahtaan, a member of the Supreme Council of the Islah Party, is considered a symbol of political transformation in Yemen and a man of politics, dialogue, and the engineer of national consensus."
The statement considered the continued kidnapping and forced disappearance of "Qahtaan" by the Houthis since April 2015 as "a condemned act," indicating that this indicates "the unethical approach practiced by that group on the Yemenis."
The protesters demanded in the statement that the international community "oblige the Houthis to implement UN Security Council Resolution No. 2216, which approved the release of Qahtaan," calling for "greater efforts to pressure the Houthis to release Qahtaan."
The statement indicated that "Qahtaan" is one of the most prominent victims of enforced disappearance since the beginning of the war in Yemen, stressing that his release is the first step towards peace and the key to the political process in Yemen as a whole.
The protesters also considered the politician "Qahtaan" a symbol of dialogue, freedom, love, and peace, and that his forced disappearance in the Houthi prisons is evidence of their refusal to coexist with others.
Yesterday, Sunday, May 19, 2024, Yemeni activists launched a wide campaign on social media demanding the release of politician "Mohammed Qahtaan," who has been kidnapped for 9 years by the Houthi group, which is internationally classified as a terrorist organization.
The Islah Party media had called, in conjunction with the campaign, for interaction with it, confirming the moral and legal responsibility of the United Nations and its representatives in Yemen to enforce the implementation of Resolution 2216, which obliges the Houthis to release Qahtaan.
The Islah media demanded in a statement from the President and members of the Presidential Leadership Council and the legitimate government that the issue of Qahtaan be a priority, stressing the "need to adhere to the principle of (all for all) that the group committed to and then renounced."
Mohammed Qahtaan, a prominent politician and leader in the Yemeni Islah Party, was kidnapped on April 5, 2015. He is the only abductee covered by UN Security Council Resolution No. 2216 calling for his release, who is still in the Houthi detention centers, and the group refuses to allow him to communicate with his family.
Those covered by UN Security Council Resolution 2216 are Former Defense Minister Major General Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, Major General Nasser Mansour Hadi, brother of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, Commander of the 119th Infantry Brigade, Major General Faisal Rajab, and politician Mohammed Qahtaan.