Ex-Yemen minister accuses UAE of bribing senior official

Yemen’s former Minister of Transport, Saleh Al-Jabwani, on Saturday accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of bribing a “high-ranking” Yemeni official to approve the bombing of pro-government forces in the city of Aden in August 2019 in what later became known as the Al- Alam massacre.

“After the Al-Alam massacre, the UAE deposited a large sum of money in the senior executive’s bank account, who transferred part of it into a luxury property in Cairo, at the same time sums were distributed to five officials who were tasked with preparing reports stating that the National Army consists of the Muslim Brotherhood militias and terrorists, and leaking them to major countries,” Al-Jabwani said on Twitter.

Following the tweet, the head of the Geneva-based SAM Organisation for Rights and Liberties, Tawfiq Al-Hamidi, demanded Al-Jabwani reveal the identity of the “high-ranking official”, saying: “The issue is not a matter of contention, but rather affects national security and the supreme policy of Yemen, and legally enters into the circle of treason, the sale of homeland and the blood of honest people.”

However, some social media users have questioned the sincerity of Al-Jabwani’s intentions saying the former minister took this step after leaving the Yemeni political scene and ending his ties with the UAE.

Al-Jabwani later said it was caretaker Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik, that he was referencing.