Yemen’s Saleh departs for U.S. with immunity
Yemen’s outgoing president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, left Yemen on Sunday and will travel to New York for medical treatment, Yemeni officials said.
Saleh will stop first in the neighboring country of Oman, and then continue to the United States, where he is expected to arrive by Wednesday, a high-ranking official close to Saleh said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said that Saleh was reluctant to travel, but he required treatment outside of the country for injuries he sustained in a bomb attack on the presidential palace in June.
Saleh, who has faced a year of protests and international pressure calling for the end of his 33-year rule, had previously made contradictory statements about whether he would leave the county and when he would leave office. In December, he said he was leaving Yemen for treatment in the United States, and then reversed himself two weeks later.
There were reports over the weekend that Saleh planned to move to Oman, but in a televised speech on Sunday, he said he would re- turn to Yemen after his treatment was finished. He also asked the country for “pardon for any failure that occurred during my tenure.”
Saleh agreed in November to leave power in exchange for immunity from prosecution, in a deal brokered by Gulf countries. Hundreds of people have been killed in the past year in attacks by security forces and pro-government militias, and protesters and human rights groups have demanded that he be tried for those deaths.
On Saturday, Parliament passed an immunity law granting him immunity, and extending the law to cover all of his subordinates who committed politically motivated crimes. Parliament also approved Vice President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi as the consensus candidate for the presidential elections slated for Feb. 21.
Saleh handed over some of his duties to Hadi after he signed the agreement in November, but continued to wield power. After the elections, Saleh is officially supposed to officially step down from office.
In his speech on Sunday, Saleh called for reconciliation and urged Yemenis to work together to reconstruct their country.
Speaking directly to the protesters who have been camped out in sit-ins across the country for nearly a year, he said “go back to your homes, go back to your families.”
“I feel sorry for you and invite you to return to your house and start with a new page with the new leadership,” he said.