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Report: Prominent dissident held on arrival in Yemen from exile

Arab World Materials 16 August 2012 00:58 (UTC +04:00)
Prominent Yemeni secessionist Ali Abdullah al-Hassani was detained Wednesday on his arrival in the southern city of Aden after years in self-exile, local media reported.
Report: Prominent dissident held on arrival in Yemen from exile

Prominent Yemeni secessionist Ali Abdullah al-Hassani was detained Wednesday on his arrival in the southern city of Aden after years in self-exile, local media reported.

Independent news site Mareb Press said masked men boarded a Jordanian plane arriving from Lebanon after it touched down at the Aden airport and detained al-Hassani, dpa reported.

They took him, along with two of his escorts, in a military vehicle to an unknown location, according to the report.

There was no official comment.

Al-Hassani, a former navy commander and ambassador, had returned to Yemen to join efforts to unite the separatist Southern Movement, Mareb Press reported.

He had been living in exile in Britain since defecting in 2005.

The Southern Movement seeks autonomy or independence for the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, which united with the north in 1990 to form present-day Yemen. The movement is split into competing factions.

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