Assailant 'planned to kill several leaders'

The killer of Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) Secretary-General Jarallah Omar was identified here yesterday as Ali Ahmed Jarallah, a 40-year-old member of the Islamic Islah Party.

Initial investigations also showed that the man was a mosque preacher who graduated from the Sanaa-based Al Eyman University.

Omar was shot dead by Jarallah after addressing a gathering of 5,000 members at the third general conference of the Islamic Islah Party, the biggest opposition party in Yemen.

The perpetrator is said to have been planning to assassinate a number of partisan leaders from the socialist, Nasserite and Ba'ath as well as from Islah party. He is said to be avowedly against any rapprochement between Islah and the non-Islamic parties.

Gulf News correspondent, who was at the scene, saw the killer firing three shots from his pistol at the back of the senior socialist official as soon as he finished delivering his speech in which he praised "the open-mindedness of the Islah party."

"We support the open harangue of Islah which is now based on tolerance, dialogue, and accepting others," said Omar in his speech, amid applause and cheers from the members minutes before he was assassinated. "We have to let bygones be bygones and start a new chapter," he told members of the party.

The bodyguards of senior officials and organisers of the the conference caught the perpetrator and started beating him. The bodyguards of the Yemeni Parliament Speaker Sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar, who is Chairman of the Islah party, then took the killer immediately to the house of their party leader.

Despite repeated calls for calm, panic spread quickly inside the conference hall after the shooting.

"Keep seated in your places! Please take your seats," a member shouted in vain to dissuade delegates fleeing the conference venue.

"Some people may want to foil our conference, keep quiet please, keep quiet please," another member of the party urged.

Security forces tried to prevent people, including the correspondent, from leaving the conference hall, saying that they would like the conference to continue. However, they failed to prevent the people from rushing out.

Saeed Shamsan, a prominent Islah member who was standing next to Omar, was also injured by the shots that hit the victim. The security measures were not tight enough around the conference hall.

"The reason perhaps was due to the row between the party and the government which initially refused to allow the conference at the hall. The Islah insisted on holding the conference in the hall and had paid two million Yemeni riyals for using the hall for three days," a party spokesman told Gulf News.

The party issued a statement shortly after the assassination condemning the incident and describing the departed socialist as "martyr of Yemen, democracy and opposition parties".

"We in Islah condemn the attack carried out by a criminal who was detained early this year on several charges, and consider this as an attack on every member of Islah, on democracy and all the opposition parties," the statement read.

"The incident comes only in the interest of the enemies of the nation who benefit from the seeds of the violence, extremism and terrorism," it added.

The Islah party demanded that "the suggestions made by the martyr in his speech at the conference be implemented, particularly his call for confronting the culture of violence, revenge, extremism and terrorism."

Meanwhile, the official news agency Saba quoted a senior government official as saying "the initial investigations showed that the perpetrator is among the extremist elements.

"He is one of the elements who had been arrested for inciting violence against the government and was released following mediation from some of the Islah leaders."

The official added that the perpetrator was arrested at the house of Sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar five hours after the assassination.

Following a letter from the minister of interior to Sheikh Al Ahmar asking him to hand over the perpetrator, the culprit was handed over.