SANAA, 27 February 2006 — Three men from a group of 23 Al-Qaeda prisoners who escaped from a high-security jail in the Yemeni capital earlier this month have surrendered to police, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in remarks published yesterday.
Twenty-three men dug a tunnel out of their prison at the headquarters of the intelligence services in the southern Sanaa suburb of Hadda on Feb. 3, dealing a major blow to Yemen’s fight against terrorism.
Yemen has offered a $25,000 reward for information about any of the escapees.
So far, three of the escapees have given themselves up, and there are contacts under way between security services and the other escapees to convince them to surrender, Saleh said, adding that he was certain the fugitives were still inside Yemeni territory.
“According to the confirmed information we have, they have not departed Yemen. They want to give themselves up,” Saleh said.
The Yemeni leader noted that “most of the jail breakers have been already sentenced and served more than half of their terms.”
Security officials told Arab News that the men gave themselves up to a former intelligence official.
Saleh admitted that “there has been negligence and maybe complicity of prison guards” and said they were under investigation.
