To mark his seventh death anniversary, the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman has saluted the late presidential candidate Faisal bin Shamlan as a pioneer of change. 

"On the 7th death anniversary of Yemen’s pioneer of change Faisal bin Shamlan, we say peace upon him the day he was born and the day he will be resurrected," Karman said in statement posted on her official Facebook webpage today afternoon.

Bin Shamlan, aged 76, passed away on Friday evening, on 1st January 2010, at his home in Aden due to an incurable disease.

It is noteworthy that Faisal bin Shamlan was the presidential candidate of JMP (A Yemeni opposition coalition) which consists of the Islamist Islah, the Yemen Socialist Party and several smaller parties, in the 2006 presidential election, but was defeated by the then president Ali Abdullah Saleh who received 77% of votes amid serious doubts about the fairness of the elections.