Armies of Liberation

Mareb Press

Tens of people carried today, Sunday, out a sit-in in Al-Jashen zone before the building of the province of Ibb protesting against sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Mansour, sheikh of AlJashen zone, who demanded them to pay money for their harvests.

Some protesters told Mareb Press that Sheikh Al Jaeshen demanded them to pay large sums of money reaching to YR 70 thousands.

Abdullah Abdo Sharaf said, “They asked me to pay YR 40 thousands and it was the same amount of money that I paid last year. I don’t have anything except a small piece of land. I have gotten my children out of the school because I can not bear the school expenses.”

“We did not know the republican system except during the 3-year period of AlHamdi’s ruling,” he added.

The citizen, Abdul Raqeeb Abdullah, demanded the authority to force Sheikh AlJa’shen to release his brother who was detained by militia of the sheikh and put in al-Hanesh prison that belongs to the sheikh.

The citizens confirmed that the militia headed by Hamoud Abdullah Mushen, Ahmed Bin Ahmed Ali and his sons prevented the refugees who ran away from AlJa’shen zone to establish a camp in Halyan zone in AlOdain district by using military vehicles belonging to the Sheikh.

They confirmed to Mareb Press that their demands were “fair and legitimate” and they wanted to feel that they were “in a State”. The citizens offered their complaint to the governor.

Meanwhile, Marab Press has learned that the governor of Ibb province has directed to cancel these amounts of money.”

Let me give you a clue: each letter stands for a word. MEI is not the same as MEMRI. MEI is a think tank; MEMRI does translations.

Last week, the Middle East Institute (MEI) published an article, Fighting Brushfires with Battons: An Analysis of the Political Crisis in South Yemen, by authors April Longley and Abdul Ghani al-Iryani. The Yemeni government researched MEI and instead came up with MEMRI.

Because MEMRI is run by an Israeli guy, the official government media is saying the authors are working for Israel or some similar idiocy. This includes the 26 Septemper (sic), website of the Defense Ministry, and al-Motamar, website of the ruling party, who have been on a rampage for a week about the authors’ connections to woooowooooo Israel. The sheer stupidity of the accusations is compounded by the fact that MEMRI didn’t publish it; MEI did.

I can’t believe these people actually run a country. There should be some kind of intelligence test.

At least this time he showed up to court for his appeal.

Fox News: A Yemeni-American, one of the FBI’s 26 “most wanted” for terrorism, appeared at a session of his trial in a Yemeni court Saturday with bodyguards and then walked free, apparently not subject to any form of incarceration, eyewitnesses said.

The 41-year-old Jaber Elbaneh attended a session of the trial for him and 22 other Al Qaeda members charged for a series attacks on oil facilities….”He entered the courtroom surrounded by four bodyguards, introduced himself to the judge then he left,” the eyewitness said about Elbaneh who is believed to be living with his family in the province of al-Dalai, some 220 kilometers south of San’a, despite being on trial. (Hat tip: Report on Arrakis

New Yorker Gaber Elbaneh attended the al-Farouq terrrorist training camp in Afghanistan with several of his friends from Lackawanna, NY who later were arrested upon their return to the US. Elbaneh’s friends, known as the Lackawanna Six, pleaded guilty to multiple terror related offenses and are in jail. Elbaneh never returned to the US. Instead he went to Yemen in 2002.

He among the 23 al-Qaeda linked prisoners who escaped from Yemeni jail in February 2006. Also in 2006, two of Elbaneh’s uncles in Buffalo, NY pleaded guilty and were convicted of illegally transferring millions of dollars to Yemen.

Yemen supposedly thwarted terror attacks against two oil facilities in the days preceding the September 2006 presidential election. There are many unanswered questions about the attacks. Elbaneh was charged in absentia with masterminding the plot as were several of the escapees.

In May 2007, Elbaneh surrendered after negotiation with Yemeni President Saleh. The FBI was unable to confirm Elbaneh was in custody. Yemen refused to extradite Elbaneh to the US after his surrender, although he is a US citizen. In November 2007 Elbaneh was convicted of the terror attacks and sentenced to ten years in absentia. Later that month, his family reported he was living free in Yemen. And he still is.

The judge was surprised to see him:

SANA’A, NewsYemen

A US-wanted Jaber al-Bana’a, also known Abu Ahmad, appeared on Saturday at the court during a session on the case of 36-member cell accused of planning for attacks on oil facilities in Safer of Mareb and Hadramout.

During the hearing session, Jaber stood before the judge and introduced himself as Jaber al-Bana’a whom a primary court sentenced to ten years before his escape from prison. Jaber denounced charges against him and said he had never carried out any terror act in Yemen or in Unites States.

The prosecutor was surprised and asked for his identity card. “I am Jaber al-Bana’a whom the primary court sentenced me to ten years in jail. I could escape the prison of Political Security, but I surrendered to President Ali Abdullah Saleh”.

Al-Bana’a left the court with four companions. The court adjourned the session until March 9.

Al-Bana’a is listed by FBI as “Most Wanted Terrorists” with a reward of 5 million dollars for information leading to his arrest.

More:

What secret deal? Its not a secret.

Yemen Post
In its first session, looking into the case of 36 Al-Qaeda elements named as ‘Al-Qaeda Cell in Arab Peninsula–Yemen), the court board were surprised when a person stood up, introduced himself as Jabr Al-Bana and submitted his identity card to them.”I have not committed any act; neither in this country nor in America. I was sentenced to 10 years in prison for doing no offence. This is not fair,” he said. (Read on …)

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb 20 — The Yemeni Teachers Syndicate and the Syndicate of Educational Professions released a statement calling for all Yemeni teachers to stage a one day sit-in on Tuesday, February 26, to force the government to raise their salaries.

The call for the sit-in came on Monday, after the extension to the negotiating period ended.

The statement said that the government had not responded to teachers’ demands to raise their annual wages within the month. The two syndicates decided to call for nationwide peaceful sit-ins. The statement indicated that while the government procrastinates from meeting the rights of the employees, claiming it is unable to curb the price hikes, it continues to operate as usual. The statement mentioned that the government neither appreciates the nature of teaching nor the significance of the teacher, who is the cornerstone of education. “This negligence has led to the constant decline in the quality of education,” said the statement.

The syndicates demanded that the government give teachers a 60 to 110 percent raise in their standing basic salaries, including YR 130,000 ($600) a month in back pay beginning from the middle of 2007, and release the annual bonuses suspended by a governmental decision in 2005.

The statement also asked the government to provide rural living expenses for the teachers who teach in rural areas, in accordance with the teachers’ law.

Moreover, the syndicates requested that local and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other syndicates sit in solidarity with the teachers. This is not the first sit-in organized by the Yemeni Teachers Syndicate. Last year the syndicate arranged many sit-ins and protests with the same demand of raising salaries. The protests forced the government to adopt a new strategy to deal with the demands, promising to raise teachers’ salaries. “The government has not made radical solutions for the teachers’ problems but limited ones. It gives teachers very small salary increases, which are nothing at all in proportion to the price hikes. In addition, the increases are always subject to many fines and taxes,” commented Ahmed Al-Rabahi, head of the Teachers’ syndicate

He added that the maximum salary for teachers according to the law is YR 160,000, and they are asking for YR130,000, which will come to YR 70,000 after taxes and insurance are deducted. In addition, Al-Rabahi believes the numerous strikes last year in many different governorates could oblige the government to pay the teacher bonuses and back pay.

Isamail Zaidan, general manager of information for the Ministry of Education, refused to comment, while personnel manager Faisal Jameel couldn’t be reached.

Abdulaziz Murshed, father of a student, supported the teachers in their demands, but at the same time is worried about his son and the other students. “I’m sure that teachers have the right to stage a sit-in because their salaries are too low due to the unbelievable price hikes. Also, every increase they get is preceded by two or three price hikes and followed by another two or three. But though they have the right to protest, students will be affected and I’m worried about that,” Murshed said.

Yemen to benefit from satellite audio, visual transmission document

SANA’A, Feb. 21 (Saba)- Minister of Information Hassan al- Louzi confirmed Yemen’s interest to make use the document of principles organizes satellite audio and visual transmission in Arab countries adopted by Arab Information Ministers.

The Arab Information Ministers Council adopted the document in the end of their extraordinary meeting which was held recently in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Upon his arrival to Sana’a after participation in the extraordinary meeting, al-Louzi said to Saba that Yemen is interesting to make use of the accord which approved by the council, especially preparing a law concerning audiovisual information and set-up General Authority of Audiovisual information.

The principles of this document will be put into practice on all transmission authorities in the Arab League member states and on all satellite transmission relay activities or any activity related to its services whether it be transmitted from or to these countries.

The document provided that all these authorities and other mentioned entities to abide by religious and moral values of the Arab society and taking into account its familial and social structure and to ban transmitting whatever might offend of the Divine, heavenly religions, messengers, to refrain from instigating religious sectarianism and to abide by the ethics of the Media profession .

The document also requires refraining from transmitting programs that contain indecent and sexual images and to protect children from any harm of their physical. mental and moral growth and from any incitement that spoils manners and misconducts.

The document obliged the transmission authorities and the relay services via satellite to apply the standards and regulations that preserve the Arab identity in all transmitted materials including (SMS).

Unhappy campers

Alsahwa.net

February 23, 2008- Yemeni Journalist Syndicate called for denying the charter dubbed “Principles for Regulating Satellite TV in the Arab World “approved by the Arab League Information Ministers in their recent meeting in Cairo.

The Secretary-General of YJS , Marwan Damaj told Alsahwa.net that the charter aims to crack down freedom of press and silence freedom of expression Demanding all Arab journalists to resist the charter.

The nonbinding charter calls on Arab satcasters to refrain from offending, among other things, “leaders or national religious symbols in the Arab Word” as well as “from broadcasting anything which calls into question God, the monotheistic religions, the prophets, sects or symbols of the various religious communities.”

Politicized Ministry Rejects Legal License Application

almotamar.net – An official source at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour said Thursday that the ministry did not finalise procedures of license application for the establishment of the so-called ” Change Organisation for Defending Human Rights and Freedoms ” applied by the member of parliament Hamad Saif Hashid.

The same source told almotamar.net that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour actually rejected a request for giving license to the organistion because it lost its right to license because of its violation of legal conditions and criteria for such organisations and its name does not represent but a devised movement, no more.

On the other hand the source praised the organisations that follow the law for private societies and organisations in Yemen and they seek to enter the process of civil society through rightful and correct ways without violating the basics and criteria.

What a good analysis, worth a read, Yemen Times

Yemeni society suffers from a faulty overall structure that has enabled the worst aspects of the past and present to emerge and become firmly established. Now we perceive the yoking of the worst values and practices of both bygone and contemporary times. New institutions have surfaced, modern in appearance but traditional in essence. They are “disfigured creatures,” borrowing from the tribe the most objectionable conventions and customs, such as vengeance killing, which is a phenomenon being transformed into political and partisan vengeance practiced in Sana’a and other Yemeni cities and villages. The “it-is-easy-to-resort-to-arms-and-violence” habit has been increasingly adopted to settle scores instead of resorting to the culture of dialogue and tolerance. (Read on …)

The chairman of the Political Development Forum Ali Saif Hassan expressed his fear that the amount of those persons (MP’s) knowledge of religion as much as their knowledge of the laws. heh

al-Motamar: almotamar.net – Assistant Secretary General of Yemeni Writers Union Ahmed Naji Ahmed warned from rendering the parliament of Yemen for a council for fatwa and accusation of infidelity and said in a symposium that the legal opinions that are unleashed at the parliament might entail terrorist acts.

Mr Ahmed called, in a symposium on Takfir (accusation of infidelity) and its negative impact on the democratic system organized by the Writers Union of Yemen and Al-Mustaqila Forum Wednesday, on the wise people in the parliament to possess a real vision for protection of freedoms. (Read on …)

Wow. I have to say its impressive Mujawar admitted the gross theft of Yemeni public money in the form of smuggling subsidized oil. The World Bank said it first though.

1) Why not end the smuggling first then do the reduction in subsidies?

2) Reduction in subsidies should be accompanied by a rational government budget not one where 25% of public funds goes to administrative maintenance and 25% goes to military spending. Subsidies are another 25% of the public budget.

3) Beyond misappropriation of funds, corruption control is another component of economic reform. It should be accomplished before raising prices on diesel.

Yemen Times

Following Prime Minister Mujawar’s presentation to the parliament regarding the economic achievements of his cabinet during 2007, parliament members expressed fury and anger at the poor performance of the government, given the record inflation experienced during the year. The prime minister started his presentation by highlighting the economic growth and developmental achievements during the last three years, but he also stated that economic growth has declined from 3.6 % in 2006 to 3.2 % in 2007. He also explained to the parliament that the government is suffering from immense pressures due to the decline in oil production and in turn revenue.

Removal of oil subsidies

The Prime Minister also added that the government will be forced to remove oil subsidies due to the cost of the subsidies on the government budget; he stated that in 2005 subsidies constituted 23.5 % of the budget, dropping to 21.2% in 2006. However, he added that in 2007 the subsidy will exceed 30 % due to the increases in international oil prices. He also added that the World Bank states that less than 23% of the subsidy benefits the population living under the poverty line, indicating that the other 75 % of the subsidy simply goes to smugglers of refined oil products to outside the country. The prime minister also added that the government of Yemen has failed in putting a stop to five oil and diesel smuggles who smuggle refined oil products out of the country. (Read on …)

So if Saleh’s son, Ahmed, head of the Republican Guard, was in control of this land, who is Qatari paying paid for the land, the government or Ahmed? Also how did the Republican Guard get 440,000 square meters of land? It was just there? No one owned it? Yemen Post

The General Authority for Investment signed an agreement with Qatari Al-Diyar Company for Real-estate Investment to implement Tilal Al-Rayan project at Faj Attan area in Sana’a.

Built over a total area of 440,000 m2, the project’s total costs are about $500 million and will overlooks most areas of Sana’a.

In the past, the land that will be used for the project was among the locations where building is not allowed and it belongs to the Republican Guard Forces. The project will be implemented as of next April. According to a release by the company, the project will include a five-star hotel, real-estate areas, commercial offices, luxurious villas and residential apartments.

Only five years for kidnapping, murder and torture.

Yemen Observer

The penal court, presided over by judge Muhsen Alwan, has issued its ruling in the murder case of Abdulhakeem al-Sayani, regarding the public right. Regarding the right of retribution, the deceased relatives have relinquished their demands after having received blood money.

The accused persons were charged with the kidnapping and murder of al-Sayani. They held and tortured him to death, on his own land in Sana’a. They then put the body in a car and pushed it off a high cliff on the road to Hodeidah.

The 13 accused persons, including the victim’s wife, received the following penalties:
- Rafiq Mohammed al-Qadhi, a fugitive, five years imprisonment
- Ali Rajah Mohammed al-Homrani, five years imprisonment
- Wasem Dhafir, five years imprisonment
- Samir Khalid Dhafir, two years imprisonment and fifty lashes
- Bakil Hizam Mohammed al-Homrani, five years imprisonment
- Najib Hassan al-Manqabi, five years imprisonment
- Mohammed Ali Hussein, four years imprisonment
- Yahiya Hussein al-Asri, four years imprisonment
- Aied Yahiya Ali Aied, a fugitive, three years imprisonment
- Hafidha Ahmed Naji al-Shokani, the victim’s wife, two years imprisonment
- Abdulwahab Hussein, three years imprisonment
- Mohammed Saif al-Sharafi, two years and six months imprisonment
- Nidhal Ali Ahmed al-Badi, two years imprisonment

Both the accused and the prosecution have appealed the judgment.

Guardian

SANAA, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Yemen has no immediate plans to remove costly fuel subsidies despite budget pressures arising from declining oil output, Oil Minister Khaled Mahfoudh Bahah said on Monday.
He told Reuters in an interview that Yemen’s crude production would drop to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year from an average 320,000 bpd last year, but voiced confidence that intensified exploration would reverse the trend and raise output to 500,000 bpd in the next five years.
The impoverished country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula struck oil in the 1980s but production has dipped since 2004 after hitting a plateau of 436,000 bpd. (Read on …)

Open Door Watchlist ranks Yemen number 6 in the world in persecution of Christians.

Source: IRIN

SANAA, 17 February 2008 (IRIN) – A technical committee of Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights recently finished drafting a 17-article parliamentary bill which, if ratified by parliament, aims to clarify the country’s asylum law and give the government more control over asylum seekers and refugees in the country.

Officials could not say when the draft law will be presented before the legislature.

Sulaiman Tabrizi, head of the rights ministry’s International Organisations Department, told IRIN that the driving motivation behind the draft law was to clarify the status of the continuous stream of Africans fleeing to Yemen. “Their legal status is not clear. Should all of them be regarded as refugees or migrants? Is the Refugee Convention applicable to them? Does Yemen have the capacity to deal with all of them?” he said.

Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that has signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its related 1967 Protocol, which removed a deadline and geographical restrictions from the Convention.

Tabrizi said if passed the new law would spell out the Yemeni government’s responsibilities towards would-be refugees. “There is a need to show how someone who has been persecuted in his country should be treated. In some cases, refugees [in Yemen] are not treated in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol,” he said, adding that the new law would rectify this.

“The 1991 Yemeni Migration Law is the only law that is applied to refugees, but that does not comply with the Refugee Convention,” Tabrizi said.

New law defines refugees

Yemen’s draft law defines a refugee as anyone who has left his country of origin for fear of prosecution as a result of his race, religion, nationality, political views or social class; or as a result of foreign assault on, or occupation of, his country, riots or unrest.

The new law seeks to give the government more control over who is given refugee status, what they are entitled to and where they live.

At present in Yemen, the government gives Somalis, who make up the vast majority of African asylum seekers, automatic refugee status once they apply for it, while non-Somali Africans (mostly Ethiopians and Eritreans) must apply to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for refugee status.

New restrictions

Under the new law, a governmental committee would be formed to consider asylum applications from all nationalities and decide whether or not to grant applicants refugee status. The committee would be chaired by an elected official from the rights ministry and its membership would consist of officials from the interior and foreign affairs ministries among others. The committee would work in coordination with UNHCR.

Yemen’s government currently allows African refugees to move freely in the country and work in non-government jobs. Under the draft law, refugees would only be allowed to live in areas assigned by the rights ministry.

According to Yemeni security authorities, many African migrants enter Yemen illegally and many do not register at any of the country’s seven government/UNHCR-run reception centres. Under the new law, the rights ministry would have the authority to expel any asylum seeker or refugee in Yemen, after consulting with security authorities and UNHCR, if it is deemed necessary to protect national or public security.

Ahmed Hayel, an official at the interior ministry, told IRIN that by the end of 2007 the number of Africans (both legal and illegal migrants) in Yemen had reached about 800,000 out of a total population of 21 million. Most were Somalis.

The UNHCR office in Yemen put the total number of African registered (legal) migrants at over 100,000, mostly from Somalia, although, Abdul-Malik Aboud, a UNHCR official, recently conceded that the number of Africans in Yemen was more than the number registered.

And the fatwas against the concert, girls education, and woman’s rights organizations:

And the name of the French researcher is….? From the Yemen Observer:

French researchers have warned of the expansion of Wahabiate Salafis and what they call ‘Saudi Islam’ to Yemen and other Arab countries.

In the second part of the symposium entitled Yemen in its Regional Circumference held at Sana’a University on February 16 and 17, a French researcher attacked Saudi attempts to export its Wahabiate thoughts to Yemen so as to exert its control over this country, adding that the Wahabi sect is a strange and an alien phenomenon in Yemen…. (Read on …)

Non-government organizations: pro forma bodies searching for funds

By: Adel al-Salwi
Translated by: Fuad Rajih
(Saba) – The number of non-governmental organizations working in Yemen in political, human rights, cultural and social fields increased during last three years.

According to the most recent statistics, more than 5000 civil organizations in the country rely on collecting donations to carry out charitable and anti-bad costumes activities and the projects of combating chewing qat and corruption.

Sociology Professor at Sana’a University Abdul Hakim Saeed al-Shrjabi who conducted a study on the role of the non-governmental organizations in strengthening political and economic progress, said that the activities of the 5000 non-governmental organizations officially announced during last ten years were focused only on the issuing and distributing their statements to papers as way to prove their existence in the society. (Read on …)

Is this the guy Saleh appointed who is going to select the judges for the SCER according to the GPC fiat?

General Secretary of the Supreme Court abuses judges’ rights, says judges

Hood online

The General Secretary of the Supreme Court violates judges’ rights to file a suit to regain their rights for better job conditions, says a press release by judges.
Many Yemeni judges have pleaded yesterday to the head of the judiciary council and the head of the Supreme Court, Essam Al-Samawi, to stop all the irresponsible acts that would defame the Yemeni judicial system, says the press release, which sent to Hood.
Some judges have a case in front of the administrative unit in the Supreme Court against the standards of the Supreme Court for deciding their job hierarchy. Their case was not registered in the court for flimsy excuses and newspapers wrote about that and interviewed the judges. The general secretary did not like that they spoke to the press. When they came, he asked them whether it is true that they spoke to the press or not. When they confirmed that, he got furious. “So, let the press register your case,” said the general secretary to the judges. He said that in public and in front of some other judges who also came for personal needs.
The General Secretary completely forgot that he is an employee and he is essentially in this post to make all procedures easier for people,” said the press release, “The right to go to courts is a constitutional right and stated in all international and local laws and no one could deny this right.”

SANA’A, (26September Net) – Yemen lost $154 million during 2005 – 2007 due to gradual reduction for customs and tax tariff within the agreement of the biggest Arab Free Trade Zone, according to an official report.

The report, Saba got a copy of, estimated increasing these losses up to $ 300 million during this year and around $524 million in 2009 to be $838 million by 2010, expecting the losses in 2005-2010 reach 1816 million.

The report presented by Yemen to the Arab Economic and Social Council (AESC) in its 81st round held in Arab League headquarters on February 6 – 14 demanded the council to stop carrying out the gradual reduction of customs and tax tariff until 2015.

Yemen’s request aims at giving some Yemeni sectors like industrial, agricultural, fishery and customs enough time to be more qualified to compete at the regional level and support the national economy.

The round decided to study the request and issue a decision next September.

The AESC seeks to reduce customs tariffs every year until it becomes zero in all Arab countries by 2010.

Saba

MEOL

Saudi Shiites fear demographic balance change

Ismaili Shiites of Najran oppose plans to settle Sunni Muslim Yemenis in southern Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Shiites have asked the authorities to scrap plans to settle Sunni Muslim Yemenis in southern Saudi Arabia to change the demographic balance in an area where they are the majority.

The Ismaili Shiites of Najran, bordering Yemen, say they had successfully petitioned King Abdullah two years ago to halt settlement of up to 10,000 Yemeni tribesmen in housing projects built for them on large tracts of land surrounding Najran city.

But a protest letter sent last month to the governor of Najran province, Prince Mishaal bin Saud, complains of marginalisation and says plans to settle another Yemeni tribe must stop.

“The king and a number of decision-makers promised the citizens of Najran that settlement would stop … it appears that settlement is a deliberate and extensive project,” it says, referring to thousands of Najranis it says have long been overlooked when seeking similar state largesse.

“We received assurances that some issues might be resolved, but others will take time,” said Mohammed Al-Askar, an Ismaili activist involved in drawing up the petition.

Najran is the historic centre of the Ismailis, a Shiite sect which has long complained of victimisation by the prevailing school of Sunni Islam followed by the Saudi state.

Najran was the scene of violent clashes in 2000, when hundreds of Ismailis clashed with police. Ismailis say that was the spur for plans to dilute their presence with Sunnis but that the settlement policy could provoke more social unrest.

The government’s Human Rights Commission has said previously it is looking into the Najran issue.

“We really do not know much about what’s going on,” said Turki al-Sudairy, head of the official body on Monday. “I’m not sure what information to believe. We don’t have a man there.”

An Interior Ministry official declined to comment.

Ismailis are thought to form a large majority in the remote region whose population was put at 420,000 in a 2004 census.

On a recent trip to the region, large billboards signed in the name of Yemeni tribal leaders had been erected to thank the local governor and senior Saudi royals for funding some of the housing projects – prim towns with grid street designs, one storey villas, street lighting and electricity.

“It’s a form of racial discrimination. We don’t have services,” said Said, 30, pointing to a map on the wall of a deserted office outlining plans for new housing units.

“There are families here who cannot get a new house or a legal deed to the land they live on. Even the children of the newcomers are given pieces of land.”

That makes a lot more sense. I didn’t think they were punitively transfered to a mental hospital.

NewsYemen: U.S. embassy in Sana’a denied taking any new measures against Sheikh Mohammad al-Moayyad and his companion Mohammad Zaid and transferring them to a cell for mentally ill prisoners.

A source at the embassy said in a press release, NewsYemen has received a copy of, the source said sheikh al-Moayyad and Zaid are still at the same cell where they have been put since September 2007 and that “they have never been transferred to prison or hospital for mentally ill detainees”. The source also denied that sheikh al-Moayyad and Zaid “have gone on a hunger strike”.

Sheikh al-Moayyad and Zaid are receiving regular medical care of the prison’s doctors, said the source.