Houthis to UN: Ready to exchange visits to prisoners

Yemen’s Houthi group yesterday announced its readiness to carry out mutual visits to prisoners it is detaining and those being held by the internationally-backed government, Anadolu news agency reported.

This came in a statement by Abdul Qadir Al-Murtada, the Houthi official in charge of prisoner exchange talks, after his meeting with the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, in Sanaa.

“Today we met with the UN envoy and his deputy [Moin Shreim], and we discussed ways to advance the prisoners’ file,” Al-Murtada said.

“We informed them of our full readiness to carry out mutual visits to the prisoners, which was agreed upon with the Yemeni government earlier,” he added, stressing the importance of carrying out these visits.

“We also informed them of our full readiness to participate in the next round of negotiations, set for mid-May, to be held after the completion of prison visits,” he added.

On 16 April, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced the completion of the release of 869 detainees in Yemen, as part of an exchange deal between the government and the Houthis reached in March

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