Yemen’s outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh is to return home from the United States to take part in the inauguration of his successor and to lead his party, the party spokesman said, according to The Saudi Gazette.
“President Saleh is on his way back but I cannot give an exact date for his arrival,” said Abdo Janadi, Yemen’s deputy information minister and spokesman of Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) party.
Yemenis on Tuesday, February 21 voted in a referendum-like election for Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi to replace Saleh, based on a Gulf-brokered power transfer plan which the outgoing leader signed in November.
Political sources said the inauguration would take place on February 27 or 28.
Saleh, who gave up power in return for immunity from prosecution based on the deal, has been in the United States since January 29 for treatment of burn wounds he suffered when his presidential palace was attacked in June.
Rights groups have been pressing the United States to prosecute the 69-year-old whose troops and loyalists killed hundreds in a nationwide crackdown on anti-regime protests.
