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Yemen’s PLC Shows Commitment to Rebuilding State, Institutional Reform

Head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi with the new governors of Hadhramaut and Socotra. (Saba News Agency)
Head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi with the new governors of Hadhramaut and Socotra. (Saba News Agency)
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Yemen’s PLC Shows Commitment to Rebuilding State, Institutional Reform

Head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi with the new governors of Hadhramaut and Socotra. (Saba News Agency)
Head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi with the new governors of Hadhramaut and Socotra. (Saba News Agency)

Since assuming power on April 7, Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has been tirelessly mobilizing to restore legitimate institutions in the war-torn nation while working on unifying ranks against the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

Many observers predict that more reforms will be announced for different institutions and sectors in Yemen.

PLC head Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi recently replaced four ministers in the legitimate government, including defense and energy ministers. Alimi also named new ministers for the power and public works portfolios.

Mabkhoot bin Mubarak bin Madhi was named governor of the oil-producing Hadhramaut region in the south, and Raafat Ali Ibrahim was appointed governor of the Socotra island in the Arabian Sea.

Alimi appointed Lieutenant-General Mohsen al-Daeri as defense minister and Said al-Shamasi as energy minister.

Manea Saleh was named minister of power, and Salim Mohammed was named minister of public works.

Well-informed Yemeni sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that discussions are underway for the PLC issuing more decisions as part of reform aimed at reinstating structural legitimacy of civil and military institutions.

According to sources, the cabinet reshuffle was preceded by the formation of the joint security and military committee.

The newly formed committee is currently working to restructure military and security forces and unify their leadership under the ministries of defense and security.

The PLC has also discussed a proposal to form a higher committee for sovereign and local revenues, and another for development and reconstruction projects, sources added.

A direction towards forming supervisory and technical committees reflects the PLC’s ambitions for administrative and financial reforms as it seeks to fulfill its local and international obligations.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, political analyst Fares al-Beel praised the PLC’s drive towards reform.

“Alimi and PLC members are well aware of the great pit that Yemen has fallen into and are working to save the country,” he remarked.

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Arab World

A British TV Art Expert Who Sold Works to a Suspected Hezbollah Financier is Sentenced to Prison

FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa
FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa
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A British TV Art Expert Who Sold Works to a Suspected Hezbollah Financier is Sentenced to Prison

FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa
FILED - 27 October 2023, Iran, Chomein: A woman sorts flags of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a factory. Photo: Arne Immanuel Bansch/dpa

An art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show was sentenced Friday to two and a half years in prison for failing to report his sale of pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
At a previous hearing, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, had pleaded guilty to eight offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000. The art sales for about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the UK and US as a Hezbollah financier, took place between October 2020 and December 2021. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the UK or US from trading with Ahmad or his businesses, The Associated Press said.
Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, faced a possible sentence of five years in prison in the hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court, which is better known as the Old Bailey.
In addition to the prison term, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Ojiri faces an additional year on license — a period of time after a prison sentence ends when an offender must stay out of trouble or risk going back to prison.
She told Ojiri he had been involved in a commercial relationship “for prestige and profit” and that until his involvement with Ahmad, he was “someone to be admired.”
“You knew about Ahmad’s suspected involvement in financing terrorism and the way the art market can be exploited by someone like him," she said. "This is the nadir — there is one direction your life can go and I am confident that you will not be in front of the courts again.”
The Met’s investigation into Ojiri was carried out alongside Homeland Security in the US, which is conducting a wider investigation into alleged money laundering by Ahmad using shell companies.
“This prosecution, using specific Terrorism Act legislation, is the first of its kind and should act as a warning to all art dealers that we can, and will, pursue those who knowingly do business with people identified as funders of terrorist groups,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the US Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.
Two years ago, the UK Treasury froze Ahmad’s assets because he financed Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.
Following Ojiri's arrest in April 2023, the Met obtained a warrant to seize a number of artworks, including a Picasso and Andy Warhol paintings, belonging to Ahmad and held in two warehouses in the UK The collection, valued at almost 1 million pounds, is due to be sold with the funds to be reinvested back into the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office.