A leaked document unveiled on Sunday that minister of information, culture, and tourism in Hadi government, Muammar Al-Eryani, leads a smuggling network, to smuggle rare Yemeni antiquities and sell it in EU countries, with participation of government leaders and Saudi emirs.
According to the leaked document from the Saudi Anti-Corruption Commission, British police arrested Saudi smugglers in London it turned out that they were part of a network run by Minister Al-Eryani, working to smuggle antiquities from Yemen through Saudi Arabia, to sell them on black markets in central Europe.
The document indicated that “a huge amount of these artifacts were seized inside an abandoned building near the Saudi capital, Riyadh,” noting that investigations are still ongoing, and it is expected that senior figures in Hadi’s government and Saudi princes are involved in the case.
In a report earlier this year, UNESCO revealed that more than one million antiquities were smuggled from Yemen during the war, which has been led by coalition in the country since the summer of 2015, in light of what Yemeni antiquities are witnessing “a systematic bulldozing process by officials in legitimacy and loyal to Saudi coalition in Yemen.”
