Yemen: Whether the Taif agreement between Saudi Arabia and Yemen provides for the extradition of persons wanted by either country; whether there are known instances of such extraditions

A professor of Middle East Studies at New York University who specializes in Yemen and Islamic international history stated in 13 May 2002 correspondence that:

The governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen have an extradition agreement based on the 1934 Taif Treaty ( see articles 9 and 10 below).

Article 9: The two high contracting parties undertake, by all moral and material means at their command, to prevent the use of their territory as a base and centre for any hostile action or enterprise, or preparations therefor, against the country of the other party. They also undertake to take the following measures immediately on receipt of a written demand from the Government of the other party:

a) If the person endeavouring to foment insurrection is a subject of the Government which receives the application to take measures, he should, after the matter has been legally investigated and established, receive a deterrent punishment which will put an end to his actions and prevent their recurrence.

b) If the person endeavouring to foment insurrection is a subject of the Government making the demand ... the Government asked to surrender him shall have no right to excuse itself from carrying out this demand, but shall be bound to take adequate steps to prevent the flight of the person asked for, and in the event of the person asked for being able to run away, the Government from whose territory he has fled should undertake not to allow him to return, and if he does so, to arrest him and hand him over to his Government.

c) If the person endeavouring to foment insurrection is a subject of a third Government, the Government to which the demand is made and which finds the person in its territories shall, immediately and directly after the receipt of the demand of the other Government, take steps to expel him from its country and to consider him as undesirable and to prevent him from returning.

Article 10: The two high contracting parties agree not to receive anyone who has fled the jurisdiction of his Government, regardless of circumstances, and are bound to return any fugitives who cross the border to their own Government.

The 1995 Saudi-Yemeni Memorandum of Understanding reaffirms all the above.

This in fact means that if a Saudi national is residing in Yemen and a request for his extradition by the Saudi government has been made, the Yemeni government is obligated to extradite the said person to Saudi Arabia. Likewise, a Yemeni national residing in Saudi Arabia will be extradited to Yemen upon the request of the Yemeni government. Based on recent history, the governments of Saudi and Yemen have engaged in such extradition. To the best of my knowledge, they have not however agreed to extradite their own nationals to the other country. Given the political situation in Yemen, I believe that the Yemeni government will extradite a Saudi national without hesitation unless such person has very strong connections with powerful individuals in Yemen who can provide him/her protection. The influence of the Yemeni government is limited within its own jurisdiction, largely because of the power of the northern tribes and this means that its writ does not always prevail.

A 1997 Amnesty International report states that although Yemen is a state party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and Article 45 of its Constitution forbids the extradition of political refugees,

government policy and practice have, in many respects, violated the standards of the Convention and the Constitution. There have been large scale deportations of foreign nationals and hundreds of people have been denied access to fair and satisfactory asylum procedures to enable them to exercise their right to seek asylum. Some have been forcibly returned to countries where they were at risk of serious human rights violations, even though they were under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Others were subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention and torture or ill-treatment (27 Mar. 1997).

Country Reports 2001 states that:

In December the Government deported approximately 100 foreigners, many of whom were studying at Muslim religious schools, who allegedly were in the country illegally. The Government claimed that these persons were suspected of inciting violence or engaging in criminal acts by promoting religious extremism. The Government deported them using existing laws that require all foreigners to register with the police or immigration authorities within a month of arrival in the country (2002 Section 1d).

In October 2001, Yemen authorities extradited to Saudi Arabia 21 Arabs suspected of having ties with al Qaida or being linked to Osama bin Laden (AFP 27 Oct. 2001; UPI 13 Dec. 2001). The suspects came from southwestern Saudi Arabia, the same area where some of the alleged hijackers in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks were born (ibid.; AFP 27 Oct. 2001). Yemen and Saudi Arabia have a bilateral security agreement that provides for the extradition of criminals (ibid.).

No additional and/or corroborating information on the extradition provisions in the Taif agreement between Yemen and Saudi Arabia and on cases of extraditions between these two countries could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 27 October 2001. "Yemen Extradites 21 Suspected Terrorists to Saudi Arabia: Report." (NEXIS)

Amnesty International. 27 March 1997. "Ratification Without Implementation: the State of Human Rights in Yemen." [Accessed 24 May 2002]

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2001. 2002. Washington, DC: United States Department of State. [Accessed 24 May 2002]

New York University. 5 April 2002. "Faculty of Arts and Science." [Accessed 24 May 2002]

Professor of Middle East Studies, New York University, NY. 13 May 2002. Correspondence. The professor's main areas of interest are "early modern and modern Middle East history, particularly Yemen, Arabia and the Indian Ocean, Islamic law, Islamic reform movements and modern Islamic political thought; pre-industrial political formations." (NYU 5 Apr. 2002).

United Press International (UPI). 13 December 2001. Richard Sale. "Yemen: Rocky Road to Terror." [Accessed 24 May 2002]

Additional Sources Consulted

Human Rights Watch (HRW). World Report 2002

_____. World Report 2001.

IRB databases

Internet sites including:

U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR)

World News Connection (WNC)