Muhammad Qahtan

Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi was the first President of the People's Republic of South Yemen. Al-Shaabi's National Liberation Front (NLF) political organisation wrested control of the country from the British and won political supremacy over the opposition Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) in 1967. On 30 November 1967, the Protectorate of South Arabia was declared independent as the People's Republic of South Yemen, with al-Shaabi as President. Al-Shaabi held the presidency until 22 June 1969, when a hard-line Marxist group from within his own NLF seized control. He was replaced by Salim Rubai Ali and jailed, then placed under house arrest until the 1970s, and lived quietly in Aden from his release until his death in 1981.