Country Flag:

Name of Capital City: Sana'a

Type of State: Republic/unitary

Administrative Divisions:
20 governorates (muhafazat): Abyan, 'Adan, Al Bayda', Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit, 'Ataq, Dhamar, Hadhramawt, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma'rib, Sa'dah, San'a', Ta'izz, Al Daleh, Shabwah, and the capital city of Sana'a.

Date of Independence:
- The Republic of Yemen was established on May 22, 1990, with the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sana'a) or North Yemen] and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen].
- Previously, North Yemen became independent in November 1918 from the Ottoman Empire, and South Yemen became independent on November 30, 1967 from Britain.

Date of Constitution: The constitution was adopted on May 16, 1991 and was amended on September 29, 1994, and February 2001.

Head of State:
- The head of state is the President.
- The powers of the President include ruling by decree in the case of parliament's absence; calling for parliamentary elections; appointing prime minister to form a government; calling for general referendum; and forming the National Defense Council.
- Ali Abdallah Saleh has been President since May 22, 1990.

   Executive Branch:
- The President appoints a Prime Minister, who is the head of the government. The Prime Minister, in consultation with the President, selects the cabinet, or Council of Ministers, to assist in the duties of the executive branch.
- Abd al-Qadir Abd al-Rahman Bajammal has been Prime Minister since April 2001.

   Legislative Branch:
- The bicameral parliament is composed of an upper house, the Consultative Council, and a lower house, the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has legislative powers while the Consultative Council serves only in an advisory capacity.
- The Consultative Council is composed of 111 members, as of April 28, 2001, appointed by the President, and the House of Representatives is composed of 301 elected members who serve six-year terms.

   Judiciary Branch:

• The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has administrative authority over the judiciary. The SJC reviews policies regarding the structure and functioning of the judiciary, and appoints, promotes, and transfers judges.
• The judicial system is composed of Courts of First Instance (Mahkama Ibtida'iyya), which hear civil, criminal, commercial, and family matters. Decisions may be appealed to the Courts of Appeal. The highest court is the Supreme Court of the Republic, located in Sana'a. It determines the constitutionality of laws and regulations, settles jurisdictional disputes between different courts, hears cases brought against high government officials, and serves as the final court of appeal for all lower court decisions.
• The Supreme Court has eight separate divisions: constitutional (composed of seven judges including the Chief Justice), appeals' scrutiny, criminal, military, civil, family, commercial, and administrative. Each division is composed of five judges.

• The public prosecution is composed of the attorney general, first Solicitor General, and a sufficient number of Solicitor Generals, chiefs of prosecution, deputies, assistants and aides of the prosecution.
• It is supplemented with a number of departments and various general administrations.
• The Public Prosecution assumes many functions included in a number of laws the mort important of which are: the judiciary law, the law establishing it, the criminal procedure code, the civil pleadings and enforcement.
• The Cassation Prosecution performs the function of the public prosecution before the Supreme Court. It is composed of a Chief at the level of Solicitor General, and a number of members. It is a prosecution independent of the attorney general in its judicial function and under its authority financially and administratively.
• The jurisdiction of the public prosecution is restricted to investigating and prosecuting crimes within the jurisdiction (venue or value) of the courts in whose departments they are working, where they have legal authority to investigate.
• At criminal and district courts, the function of criminal prosecution is performed by one or more members headed by a district attorney or assistant district attorney.
• At Public Assets Courts, the function of public prosecution is carried out by a public assets prosecution composed of a Solicitor General, assisted by a number of chiefs, deputies and assistants from the office of public prosecution. It is under the authority of the attorney general judicially, financially and administratively.
• At Military Courts, the function of public prosecution is performed by a public military prosecution headed by a Solicitor General, assisted by a number of chiefs, deputies and assistants from the office of public prosecution. It is under the authority of the attorney general technically and judicially, and the minister of defense financially and administratively.
• The function of specialized appellate criminal prosecution at the specialized appellate criminal division is performed by a number of prosecution members headed by one of its chiefs.
• The function of specialized first instance criminal prosecution at the specialized first instance criminal court is performed by one or more members headed by a district attorney or assistant district attorney.

• A complaint or report is submitted to the office of public prosecution or any officer of the judicial police. If submitted to an officer of the judicial police, he will collect evidence and send it to the prosecutor's office.
• It is then recorded in the public prosecution's registry and shown to the district attorney (the director) who, in turn, refers it to one of the members as part of the distribution plan.
• The member reviews it and opens a review report.
• After review thereof, he (the member) may see fit not to suspend the case if he does not deem that it involves a crime or is punishable by law, or he may pursue investigation based on an initial characterization of the incident.
• The investigation begins and it consists of the following procedures:
  1. Either issuing a decision that there is no solid foundation to bring criminal action or referring it to the relevant court upon confirmation of the charge. This shall be done by way of an indictment.
  2. A date is set for a preliminary hearing and the defendant is ordered to appear.
  3. The case is handed over to the court.
  4. Trial procedures begin and the prosecution becomes an honorable adversary in the case and a part of the court's composition.
  5. The court handles the management of all open trial hearings.
  6. The court reserves the case for review and sets a date for an open hearing for the pronouncement of the sentence.
• The sentence is sent back along with the case file to the relevant office of prosecution for execution. If either party challenges the decision of the Appeals Court, it is sent to the Supreme Court. Then the case file is returned along with all judgments to the prosecution for execution.
• The office of the prosecution shall record the judgments in a registry of its own, and the case file is saved and archived in the prosecution's archives after notating that the judgment has been executed in the case.