World

Yemen holds 14 people involved in March bloodbath

Published Updated

"The interior ministry has handed 14 people accused to the public prosecution over the tragic incidents" of March 18 near Sanaa University when "several protesters were martyred or wounded," a ministry spokesman said.

"Thirty other suspects will be questioned in connection with the same case," he said, quoted by state news agency Saba.

Fifty-two people were shot dead in what rights groups have called "an apparently coordinated (rooftop) sniper attack on a protest camp in Sanaa."

More than an estimated 125 people have been killed since protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster erupted in late January, inspired by uprisings which toppled long-time rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011