Turkey has frozen the assets of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in line with a decision by the UN Security Council, the government said in its Official Gazette on Thursday. All of Saleh's assets in Turkish banks and other financial institutions, including safes, were frozen, it said. Saleh is suspected of amassing as much as $60 billion (Dh220 billion), equivalent to Yemen's annual GDP, during his long rule, and colluding in a militia takeover in 2014, UN-appointed investigators have told the Security Council. Al Sharq Al Awsat reported last year that Saleh has appropriated billions of US dollars of assets owned by the General People's Congress (GPC), the ruling party, to fund Al Houthi-allied militants fighting the legitimate Yemeni government. "Saleh has seized huge amounts of the party's money to fund his forces after his assets were frozen under UN Security Council resolutions," the GPC official, who requested to remain anonymous, said. Saleh, leader of the GPC, funnelled most of the money to his supporters in the military and the Republican Guards — formerly led by his son Ahmad — who aided Al Houthis' advance in Yemen since September 2014, according to the official.
