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Houthi Minister Accuses Saleh of Killing Politicians | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A poster bearing the portrait of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and announcing the 35 year anniversary of the establishment of his General People’s Congress party is seen on a Sanaa street on August 19, 2017. Mohammed Huwais / AFP


Riyadh- A “Houthi” minister in the Sanaa coup government accused on Sunday former president Ali Abdullah Saleh of killing political leaders during his tenure.

Hassan Zaid, who holds the post of minister of Youth and Sports within the illegitimate Houthi government in Sanaa, wrote on his Facebook account on Sunday that “impertinence and cruelty that can reach the level of atrocity is embodied in the refusal of head of the General People’s Congress party to uncover the fate of the forced hidden Nasserite leaders.”

Zaid threatened the former president of opening the file of “illicit gains.”

The Houthi minister said he would not stop digging in the files of corruption and assassinations, the smuggling of weapons, in addition to giving up state lands.

In August, a war of words between the two previous allies, Houthi and Saleh’s supporters, exploded into a military confrontation when militants believed to be linked to Saleh’s Republican Guards fired at a Houthi military position in the Joulat al-Misbaha where the two groups exchanged fires in the presence of a high-security deployment.
Reports said the clashes erupted after Houthi fighters tried to set up a security checkpoint near the home of Saleh in Sana’a.

Last August, Zaid also confessed that, around two years ago, he had asked the head of the so-called Supreme Political Council, Saleh al-Samad, to assassinate President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi and place him under house arrest in the Yemeni capital.

He also revealed that Saleh was granting military ranks to Qaeda militants and accused the former president of using them to assassinate academics, military officials and security leaders.

“The former regime of Saleh was granting military grades and was hiring hundreds of guards to protect armed bandits and Qaeda members who were later tasked to kill patriots from the military, security and academic leadership,” he said.