YEMEN: JAILING OF JOURNALIST IN LINE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD CONDEMNED
Amnesty International UK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY 9 JUNE 2008
YEMEN: JAILING OF JOURNALIST IN LINE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD CONDEMNED
42-year-old jailed for six years this morning [Photograph available]
Amnesty International has today condemned the jailing of a leading
journalist in Yemen just days before an event in London at which the
journalist is in line for a human rights media award.
Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, 42, the former editor of Yemen’s political
weekly newspaper Al-Shora, was sentenced to six years imprisonment
earlier today after being convicted by the Specialised Criminal
Court in a case known as Sana’a Cell Two.
Mr Al-Khaiwani, who was on trial with 13 other defendants, appears
to have been convicted as a result of his professional work as a
journalist, including his coverage of armed clashes between
government forces and supporters of the late Zaidi Shi’a cleric
Hussein Badr al-Din al-Huthi in the northern Yemeni province of
Sa’da. Some of the case’s defendants were charged with violent
activities and one is believed to have been sentenced to death.
Mr Al-Khaiwani is one of many activist journalist and critics of the
state in Yemen who have been persecuted for their peaceful criticism
of government policies.
He has repeatedly been targeted over his journalism, suffering
years’ of harassment, death threats, beatings and arbitrary
detention. On one occasion last year he was abducted by gunmen
outside a newspaper office, apparently because of an article he
wrote concerning human rights violations in Yemeni prisons. During
the ordeal he was reportedly beaten and threatened with death if he
continued to publish articles critical of the government.
(And yet he doesn’t surrender to the regime’s targeting.)
Along with the Azerbaijani journalist Aqil Xalil, Mr Al-Khaiwani is
currently shortlisted by Amnesty International UK for its 2008
“Special Award For Human Rights Journalism Under Threat†, part
of the organisation’s annual media awards. The award, which will
be made in London on 17 June, is to be presented by Alan Johnston,
the BBC journalist who was kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza for
nearly four months last year.
Speaking shortly before he was imprisoned, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani
said:
“The authorities in Yemen are trying to silence me and they even
appear to be prepared to lock me up to keep me quiet. I definitely
don’t want to go to prison again just for doing my job as a
journalist, but at the same time I’m not prepared to censor myself
for an easy life.
“Amnesty’s support means a lot to me and I think it’s really
important that they make these awards to journalists under threat.â€
Amnesty International UK Media Director Mike Blakemore said:
“Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani should never have been on trial in the
first place and his imprisonment looks like a clear case of the
authorities putting an independently-minded journalist behind bars
for his criticism of government policies.
“Mr Al-Khaiwani is shortlisted for our ‘Special Award For Human
Rights Journalism Under Threat’ and if he’s given the award
he’ll be in the ironic position of being unable to collect it
himself because of this latest imprisonment. This situation speaks
volumes about the poor state of freedom of expression in Yemen.
“The Yemeni authorities should release Mr Al-Khaiwani immediately
and stop persecuting perfectly legitimate journalism. They should
also release other detainees currently held for peaceful protests
and peaceful criticism of the state.â€
Amnesty International is seriously concerned about the recent
clampdown on freedom of expression in Yemen. Recent peaceful
protests in the south of the country have resulted in the detention
of several government critics, three of whom have been accused of
undermining the independence of the country, a charge which carries
the death penalty.
The Amnesty Special Award For Human Rights Journalism Under Threat
is made by a panel of Amnesty experts and activists from the
organisation’s UK headquarters and its International Secretariat,
and the selected journalist will be invited to receive the award in
person at the media awards ceremony in London on 17 June.
