Al-Murtadha Announces Agreement to Include Prisoner in Upcoming Exchange Deal

The head of the National Committee for Prisoners, Abdulqader Al-Murtadha, announced an agreement with the Saudi-backed party to include Mohammed Qahtan in the agreed exchange deal during the ongoing negotiations in Oman regarding prisoners.

Al-Murtadha stated that the agreement included the release of Mohammed Qahtan in exchange for the release of 50 of the Army’s prisoners held by the Saudi-backed party. If he is deceased, his body will be handed over in exchange for the other party handing over 50 bodies.

“This agreement comes out of our keenness to release our prisoners,” Al-Murtadha said, stressing Sana’a’s commitment to ending this humanitarian issue by releasing all prisoners according to the principle of “all for all” and avoiding any political calculations.

He pointed out that the committee has, throughout the past stages and negotiations, demanded the release of all prisoners and the necessity of resolving this issue without linking it to any other matters or using it as a means of pressure.

On Saturday, the head of the National Committee for Prisoner Affairs departed for the Omani capital, Muscat, to hold new talks on the prisoners’ issue under UN sponsorship.

The negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal in Yemen are facing significant hurdles. Despite efforts from the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs to move forward with the exchange deal, disruptions, particularly by US-Saudi mercenaries, have impeded progress. The recent disruption of planned prison visits in Marib further complicated the situation.

The President of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs stressed the importance of resolving this humanitarian issue and expressed Sana’a’s readiness to negotiate a comprehensive release of all prisoners, despite ongoing obstructions from Saudi-backed parties.