The Transitional Council, backed by UAE, in southern Yemen, pre-empt the arrival of a team of American investigators on Saturday, to look into the circumstances of killing an American citizen, with moves that reflected the Council’s concern over the consequences of its factions’ killing to an American citizen in Lahij province.
STC’s factions, led by Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, STC’s head, rushed to publish statements attributed to the car driver of Abdul-Malik Al-Sanabani, in which he is trying to portray the incident as criminal, despite the videos and scenes that reveal the involvement of Al-Zubaidi’s forces in the crime.
The publication of Al-Sanabani’s private driver’s confessions comes hours after Al-Zubaidi announced the formation of an investigation committee into the circumstances of the crime, which shook the Yemeni street and caused wide local and international reactions.
Supporters of the transitional were divided between anti-crime and an attempt to justify it, which prompted the leaders of the Council to disavows themselves from the crime at times, noting that the perpetrators of the crime are “intruders” and their goal is to offend the Council, at other times, they hold their opponents responsible by implying that the forces who committed the crime belong to Tur al-Baha sector, in reference to the factions affiliated with Islah there and known in Tur al-Baha axis. However, these accusations did not exonerate the transitional scene; the documents circulating so far have confirmed the involvement of the 9th Brigade, a faction of Al-Saiqha Brigade, whose leadership is personally supervised by Aidarous al-Zubaidi.
In the context, tribal sources in Al-Sabiha revealed attempts to smuggle the perpetrators, referring to contacts made by Saleh Al-Sayed, the commander of the transitional forces in Lahj, with Haitham Qassem, the leader of the pro-Emirati factions on the western coast to arrange the escape of the perpetrators, including one of his relatives.
These moves come on the eve of news on intense contacts with US lawmakers, to pressure to send a team of American investigators to uncover the circumstances of the case, amid news of arrangements for their transfer to coalition camp in Aden.
Last weekend, the transitional factions committed the most heinous crime in the history of Yemen when they arrested a Yemeni expatriate in America who holds American citizenship and tortured him to death for looting motives.
