TNAG-0559-FCO40-654-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 216

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fragmentary nature of much of the material makes it difficult to substantiate

hese reports.

There were reports that a large number of political prisoners, including some of those adopted by AI, were released following the National Front Party Congress in March 1975, but no details of these releases have yet been received.

In May 1975 an AI mission visited the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and the Yemen Arab Republic. The delegates were British lawyer John Platts-Mills and Katrina Mortimer from the Research Department. They met the Chairman of the Presidentail Council, Salem Rubia Ali, and officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Justice and discussed with them the problem of political imprisonment, prison conditions, detention without trial, disappearances and executions. The delegates also visited Al Mansura prison and met those Al-adopted prisoners held there. They were not, however, permitted to visit any other prisons in the country.

Yemen Arab Republic

This is still a country about which Amnesty International has very little information as far as political prisoners are concerned. The few reports AI has received may not be indicative of the actual situation.

In May 1974 Al received reports about a teenage boy, Abdul Wahid Ali Qassem Saif, who had been arrested after the execution of his father in April 1973. The father had been found guilty of sabotage. It was reported that an earlier death sentence passed on the boy was later commuted to 3 years' imprisonment. Inquiries were made for further details of this case, and a letter was sent meanwhile to President Qadi Al Iryani requesting that the prisoner be allowed family visits which up until then, it is claimed, had not been permitted. Later it was learned from a reliable source that his mother was now being allowed to visit him. No other information about this case has been received.

In June 1974 there was a change of government when a military junta took over in a bloodless coup. The new President, Colonel Ibrahim Al Hamdi, announced that the cases of all political prisoners would be reviewed. In a letter to the then Prime Minister, Muhsin Al Aini, AI welcomed the move, and in August it was reported that all political prisoners, except for those convicted for sabotage, had been released.

In May 1975 an AI mission visited the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. The delegates were British lawyer John Platts-Mills, and Katrina Mortimer from the Research Department. The mission's main purpose was to introduce Al's aims and methods to the leading members of the government and of the religious community. The delegates also held discussions with the appropriate ministers on political prisoners, on the legal system in relation to political offences and, following a visit to a number of prisons in the capital, on prison conditions.