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Yemeni protesters stage rallies to demand trial for outgoing president

16 December 2011 17:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Tens of thousands of Yemeni people staged rallies across the country on Friday to call on prosecuting outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his aides for "ordering crackdown on anti-government protests."

The protesters in the capital Sanaa, southern province of Taiz and other major cities, dubbed the day as "prosecuting Saleh and his aides is our demand."

They chanted slogans against a political compromise initiative brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that was signed last month and granted Saleh immunity from prosecution.

"We will stay on in sit-in squares until Saleh and his aides are put on trial," the demonstrators yelled. "Our protest is continuing until those killers are jailed," protester Tawfic al- Yazidy told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, opposition media reported that Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman, a leading Yemeni female protester, called for "the youths to get ready to stage marches in front of the Yemeni Parliament to protest against an immunity law for Saleh which the parliament is scheduled to ratify within next week."

According to the GCC initiative, the parliamentary members will adopt a law in next few days to grant Saleh immunity from prosecution after the president resigns.

The initiative was signed by Saleh and opposition leaders in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23, which was to end the 11-month-long turmoil that brought the impoverished Arab state on the verge of civil war and economic collapse.

Under the deal, early presidential elections in Yemen are set to be held on Feb. 21, 2012, while Saleh retains the title of honorary president for 90 days before his resignation and enjoys immunity from prosecution afterwards.