Who is insulting the judiciary – the guy who laughed in court or the judge who refuses to free him despite a court order?
Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani was sentenced to six years in jail for an article that wasn’t cheerful enough and “liable to undermine the morale of the military”. Comedian Fahd al-Qarni is still in a Yemeni jail for singing a song that was too funny. Actually the song is so funny that when the prosecutor played it at trial as evidence, the entire courtroom burst out laughing, resulting in another trial delay.
In today’s developments, journalist Mohammed al-Mokaleh, spent two months in jail for laughing during al-Khaiwani’s trial. This week he was found guilty at his own trial of “attacking and defaming the judicial system” and given a six month suspended sentence.
However, the original judge refuses to respect the sentence and al-Makaleh remains in jail for defaming the judiciary. Do we get the irony here? The judge who refuses to implement the ruling is the one “attacking and defaming” the judiciary, not the guy who laughed in court. Its a zoo; even the judges treat the judiciary as subordinate to the elite shadow government that operates on vengeance not justice.
According to information before The International Press Institute (IPI), on 15 June, a Yemeni prosecutor accused Al-Mokaleh of “attacking and defaming the judicial system,” for laughing out loud during the concluding moments of the trial of Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani, former editor-in-chief of the Al-Shoura newspaper, in late April 2008. Al-Mokaleh, who is also the Secretary-General of the opposition Socialist Party, has been a vocal critic of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his policies….Despite efforts by an advisor to the President as well as several Yemeni members of parliament, the judge has refused to release Al-Mokaleh on bail
as required by the court.
