SANA’A — Dr. Mohammed Al-Mikhlafi, minister of legal affairs in the reconciliation government, said cabinet ministers in the General People's Congress (GPC) are obstructing the passing of a transitional justice law.

The proposal was suggested by the interim government following former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s removal from the office in February. The law aims to compensate the families of victims of various political crises from 1994 to 2011 in return for amnesty granted to perpetrators.    

Ministers were unable to pass the law because GPC ministers disagreed, according to Al-Mikhlafi.

Abdulmalik Al-Fahidi, editor-in-chief of Al-Motamaer news website, the mouthpiece of the GPC, denied Al-Mikhlafi’s accusations.

“Al-Mikhlafi’s statement in this regard is untrue, and he wanted to present himself as the man behind the accomplishment of this proposal,”Al-Fahidi said.

“The unsuccessful passing of the law by the cabinet is due to disagreements among ministers of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP),” he said. “Each party of the JMP wants to have its issues included in the law. The Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) wants to discuss the 1994 war and the bloody 1986 conflicts, whereas the Nasserite Organization insists on including the 1978 incidents.”

“And the People’s Forces Union wants to bring the 1968 issues into the law, whereas the Al-Haq party seeks to even include the 1948 [failed coup against the imamate’s rule which ended in 1962],” Al-Fahidi said.

Al-Mikhlafi, one of the JMP ministers, said, "Those who hinder the law of transitional justice are not aware of the risks behind that because it is the core of power transfer in Yemen that will pave the way for the National Dialogue Conference.”

Al-Mikhlafi said the law seeks forgiveness for those who violated rights by compensating the victims of local crises. The law will achieve justice for the victims of the violations, he said.

Al-Mikhlafi added he doesn't know the reasons that made the GPC's ministers refuse the law. No one can predict the losses Yemen will sustain if the national reconciliation fails, he said.

In a conversation with Yemen Times, Al-Mikhlafi declined to comment on media reports claiming he received death threats calls from religious groups for his work pushing forward the law’s passage.

 Al-Sahwa.net and Al-Masdar Online reported Sunday that Al-Mikhlafi received death threats for if the law passed. The groups also threatened to carry out terrorist attacks against the reconciliation government, according to reports.

On May 30, the cabinet authorized President Abd Rabo Mansour Hadi and Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basendwa to take action regarding the law of transitional justice.

The state-run Saba News Agency reported that the Yemeni Cabinet will discuss the results of the committee, headed by Al-Mikhlafi, which was formed to discuss the draft law with stakeholders.

"Because of disagreements between the committee members and ministers in the cabinet around some points in the law draft, the cabinet moved the law to President Hadi and the prime minister, in accordance with the 12th article of the Gulf initiative, which stipulates that laws are decided in reconciliation between members of the cabinet. If they don't agree, the president and the prime minister are the ones to decide.”

Yemen Times attempted to contact GPC ministers, but their phones were off.