Just as Yemen prepares to celebrate its republican anniversary, September 26, Yemenis have renewed their calls for an end to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's political and judicial immunity.
Emboldened by NDC representatives most recent achievements and in the spirit of September 26, Yemenis have said to want real change and real accountability.
On September 26, 1962 republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal successfully staged the ouster of of then-newly crowned Imam al-Badr, turning the once Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen into a republic over night.
Just as Yemen broke away from its monarchial past in the course of a day by the sheer will of its people, Yemenis want now to reinvent their institutions and wave goodbye to three decades of republican nepotism.
Following months of status quo, Yemenis have returned in force to the streets of the capital, Sana'a, demanding that their former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh be forced to answer to his peers. While rumors of corruption and embezzlement have surrounded the former president and his family members it is his role in the killing of dozens of protesters back n 2011 which Yemenis want to see him tried for.
This Wednesday Yemenis seemed determined to send President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi a clear message: they will neither tire nor waiver in their demands. Brandishing revolutionary posters, the crowds chanted for Saleh's trial and immediate arrest.
"We want to prosecute the killers," they chanted, "No to immunity," they called.
The demonstration organizing committee warned that as far as activists were concerned Yemen's revolution would only truly end with the prosecution of all of Yemen's criminals, in keeping with international law.