Armies of Liberation

There are many moves afoot within Yemen and internationally that dispute the unprecedented immunity deal for 33 years of Saleh’s crimes as well as that of his cohorts. However, the Yemeni parliament, that has been sitting since 2003, when it was elected to a four year term, was scheduled for elections in 2009 and voted itself a two year extension into 2011. I am checking but I can’t find anyone who recalls a new law being issued where they voted themselves another term extension.

(Update: the 2009 law grants a two year extension until they elect a new parliament in 2011, ambiguous language at best.

Update 2: a handy link from Yemen Parliament Watch that indicates parliament is operating outside the scope of the law: “The report indicated that the constitutional period of the parliament ended in February 2011 where the parliament had finished its six years stipulated constitution as well as the additional two years.”

Update 3: there is also a stipulation in the constitution that parliament can be extended when facing war, natural disaster or unrest, but I’m assuming that had to have been done formally, and within the scope of the term, not by some GPC mind meld.

Update 4: the amnesty was issued while Parliament was legally on vacation or in recess.)

Original post continues: A political deadlock ensued following the 2006 presidential election wherein the GPC thwarted the implementation of a proportional representation system (as opposed to a “winner takes all” single district method) and other electoral reforms, prompting the opposition JMP to boycott parliament altogether. Without the implementation of the previously agreed upon reforms, the parliament voted itself a two year extension and rescheduled elections for 2011. (In order to thwart elections in 2011, the SCER also disqualified the voter rolls en mass.) There was no new parliamentary election in 2011 and no official law passed rescheduling the election and extending their terms as far as I know. Therefore there is no legitimate Yemeni parliament, just a bunch of old men stuck to their chairs for a decade.

So where is the legal foundation of this expired parliament’s vote to give the Sanaa regime immunity? More fundamentally, the people withdrew legitimacy from the Parliament, the Sanaa regime and dysfunctional political party system through a year of mass nationwide protests.

However, while many are working on the issue of Saleh’s immunity, I am much more concerned with the implementation of the proportional representative system in order to undermine the hegemony of both the GPC and Islah who were both artificially empowered by the GCC plan. Proportional representation will allow for the growth of new parties, minority representation and probably more women in political office. It appears that the only way to get the task done is through a public referendum, as the same illegitimate GPC dominated parliament that stalled on the issue for five years will likely continue to block it.

The proportional system has a national consensus, and it has been repeatedly been endorsed by a variety of Yemeni groups from the JMP in 2005 to the tribally based National Dialog Committee in 2009 to the Yemeni Youth Revolution that took to the streets in 2011.

Had the PR system been enacted as agreed upon in 2006, allowing for authentic political growth and representative parties to compete in 2009, the revolution might not have been necessary. So its important not to allow history to repeat itself, especially with this crucial and long overdue element of the overall package of electoral reform.

There is more on the other illegalities of the unprecedented and illegal amnesty plan below from Human Rights Watch and the YCTJ:

Press Release
By The Yemeni Center for Transitional Justice Concerning the Approval of the House of Representatives of the Immunity Law

The Yemeni Center for Transitional Justice reviewed the law approved by the House of Representatives (Parliament) of the Republic of Yemen concerning the award of immunity to the President of the Regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh and his supporters. As YCTJ confirms its previous position with respect to this law, that the law lacks the minimum principles of human justice, and is openly in violation of honorable Islamic Jurisprudence, international laws, and is in breach of the international human rights conventions/agreements to which Yemen is signatory, YCTJ now also calls for the application of real true transitional justice without any selectivity, forgery or deliquescent.
(Read on …)

Yemen Post: Republican guards killed a 14-year old boy in Yemen’s Taiz province on Wednesday, where a massive demonstration was held coinciding with protests in other cities to urge the youth-led protesters to finish their revolution and to refuse external mandate or interventions.

Locals at Street 60th at the city’s entrance said republican guards fired at passengers inside a bus killing the teen and injuring others. The incident took place amid insecurity in Taiz, which saw deadly clashes between the army and armed tribesmen in the past weeks.

In other Taiz related news, Haykel Saed Corp is negotiating between the families of the protesters killed by forces under the supervision of lunatic security chief (transferred from Aden after several bloodbaths) Abdullah Qiran. There’s no resolution yet as the families are demanding a trial. Qiran was also charged with the murder of Ahmed Darwish tortured to death in Aden jail. One major outstanding protesters’ demand is the purge and reformation of the security forces.

a) Drone attacks with civilian casualties could trigger a civil war if the previously unarmed Southern Movement believes it is being arbitrarily attacked by Saleh’s forces or Mohsen’s. Vid of some aircraft bomber in South Yemen is widely assumed to be Saleh’s air force and is provoking panic at the thought of a new bombing campaign like the one that occurred in Saada. (Update: Vid likely not US, has the wrong contrail, vid recorded yesterday and supposedly hit Abyan City. Whereas US air strike was in Shabwa and days earlier.) (Local reporting on Shibuya.)

Update: CNN reports Abu al Harithy Jr. was in Shabwa and the Yemeni government is taking credit on TV.

A U.S. military official with knowledge of the Yemen campaign told CNN that U.S. military-led air operations recently resumed after a pause of some months. He also said the United States believes it likely killed al-Harithi in an airstrike in southern Yemen in recent days. But he cautioned its “very difficult” to confirm the killing.

The official said the pause was due to the fact the United States “didn’t have faith in the information available,” to conduct targeting against individuals in Yemen during that time frame. He could not say what led to the improved intelligence picture, but the Yemeni government has been absorbed with the anti-government demonstrations raging in big cities and fighting tribal forces.

The US also pledged $26 mil in humanitarian aid today.

b) The embedded links in this section lead to contemporaneous posts on the 2006 trial of the 19 member Zarchawi cell headed by Ali Abdullah Naji Al-Harithi, nicknamed Abu Ali Al-Harithi junior. This is the cell that won its appeal to reduced charges by arguing successfully that its legal under Yemeni law to commit murder abroad in the name of jihad. They admitted traveling to Iraq as well as establishing training camps in Yemen. The cell made explosive belts because John Kerry mentioned something about Yemen during a presidential candidates’ debate, but then when he didn’t win, they claimed at trial they gave the belts to the intelligence services. Al Hairthy was killed in a recent US air strike (Friday 6/3) in Yemen per the NYTimes report below.

c) Another thing I will never understand about US CT policy is why Yemen got a total pass from 2004-2007 when literally thousands of jihaddists, Yemeni and non-Yemeni, were being trained in Yemen to kill US troops in Iraq. There is an incorrect concept that there was little AQ activity in Yemen during that time frame, however Yemen was buzzing with activity, receiving and exporting jihaddists. They would leave by the plane load openly. Its reasonable to say half of US military deaths and injuries in Iraq were perpetrated by individuals who in some way were connected with the Yemeni pipe line. That’s a mind boggling statement when Bush was always whining about Syria letting them into Iraq but never once publicly about Saleh letting them out of Yemen. Overview of Yemenis in suicide ops in Iraq as well as coordination with Baathists in Yemen here. Saddams nephew never located as far as I know.

NYT: June 8, 2011
U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes, By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.

The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.

On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. According to witnesses, four civilians were also killed in the airstrike. Weeks earlier, drone aircraft fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who the United States government has tried to kill for more than a year. Mr. Awlaki survived. (Read on …)

Wow, Saleh is really scrambling to appease everybody. Shaea was kidnapped in August and arrested in September, tried and sentenced to five years for supporting al Qaeda after releasing several interviews and statements from Anwar al Awlaki. The YJS and international media advocates have been lobbying for his release. Update: Yemen Post reports he’s out.

News Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly ordered the release of imprisoned journalist and expert of terrorist groups’ affairs AbdulElah Haidar Shaye. (Read on …)

The judge said Anwar and his cousin incited the security guard, a member of the security forces, to murder the French engineer.

BBC: A Yemeni court has sentenced a man to death for killing a French contractor near the capital Sanaa last year. The court also sentenced in his absence radical US-born Yemeni Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to 10 years in jail for aiding the gunman. (Read on …)

Abdulelah was charged with an assassination plot on Saleh according to RSF, recruiting foreigners for al Qaeda and agitating for attacks with its leadership. The catch all of “armed gang” carries a ten year penalty. Yemen has staunchly defended Anwar al Awlaki as a preacher and said they have no evidence against him, yet they are charging Abdulelah with aiding Awlaki. Some reports indicate that Shaea is also charged with producing the Echo of Epics magazine for AQAP, but accusations launched in the government papers in the build up to any trial are often not the same as the charges brought by the state in court.

In the session, the prosecution accused the two defendants of belonging to an illegal armed gang and supporting the Al-Qaeda network”. According to the indictment, Shaea had attracted foreign mercenaries and urged them to join abovementioned gang to targeting strategic interests and foreign embassies in Yemen .” (Read on …)

ah, English: Yemen Observer: A Yemeni journalist was officially charged on Sunday of providing media support for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), lawyers said on Sunday. “The journalist Abdul Elah Haidar Shaea was accused of planning sabotage and criminal acts that threaten the security and stability of the nation, and providing media support for Al Qaeda,” said Abdul Rahman Barman, one of his lawyers, after they attended the first investigation session in the prosecution office of the State Security Court in Sana’a. Barman said the charges lack hard evidence. “It seems the charges were based on the interviews made by Shaea with the Al Qaeda leaders,” he said.
(Read on …)

Its amazing how many of the president’s orders are not followed. In this case its the four on trial for spying for Iran. But why even make the announcement of the amnesty if there was no intention of releasing all the detainees? Its good propaganda for the international and domestic audiences but all it did was raise expectations and then cause greater frustration when the amnesty was not implemented, for example the recent rioting in prisons by the political prisoners. Its funny the prosecution says the order is not legal but very little in the Yemeni judicial system is legal or constitutional.

Yemen Times:SANA’A, June 6 — The prosecution in Sana’a has objected to the president’s amnesty on four Yemeni citizens accused of supporting the Houthis and spying for Iran.

This objection came during a trial session of four defendants on Sunday morning at the Specialized Penal Court in the capital. The prosecution said that the amnesty is illegal as the defendants are still being tried and no verdict has been issued against them. (Read on …)

I know there are many different views on unity, the government and Yemen’s history itself, but one thing we can all agree on is that Yemen is an amazing country, worth all the effort and sacrifice that people put in over the last 20 years to make it better.

To mark the occasion, Saleh pardons everybody. The journalists will be the easiest to track and hopefully they all walk today. The Houthi rebels have been pardoned five times already, so its questionable whether they will really be released, but it would go a long way toward ratcheting down the tensions if they were. Many remain “disappeared” despite the peace deal. As for the southerners, many journalists and politicians are being held under charges of undermining unity and many others with no charges at all. Also we have to watch to see if there is an exodus of al Qaeda from the jails, which I think is rather likely.

More details from Nasser Arrabyee

“According to this dialogue, it is possible to form a government of all the influential political parties represented in the parliament,” said Saleh, speaking in the city of Taez, 230 kilometres (140 miles) southwest of Sanaa…He said the amnesty would apply to “all outlaws” — a reference to the southern separatists, and “anti-government elements who were arrested” in the north, where the Shiite rebels are based on the border with Saudi Arabia. The pardon would affect an estimated 800 prisoners linked to the southern separatists and about 2,000 Shiite rebels or sympathisers in the north. Saleh said that the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), which is agitating to re-establish south Yemen as an independent state, would be a principal partner in the political dialogue.

Its not the YSP that is agitating for independence. Some YSP members have joined the southern movement but the party is seen by many southerners as a sell out to “northern” interests.

TAIZ, May 22 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned on Saturday all journalists on trial and those sentenced due to public right cases.

The pardon was granted as the president attended the festival organized on the 20th anniversary of unification in the western province of Taiz.

In his address to the nation on the eve of Unification Day, Saleh ordered to release all detainees held in connection with the Houthi rebellion in the far north, which ended in February this year, and the rioting in some southern provinces.

Oh yes and its a democracy too! The local elections were stupendous, the media is free and the anti-corruption efforts are zooming right along. They lie and lie and lie some more. The problem with reform efforts in Yemen is that no one in the Saleh administration will acknowledge basic realities. Illegal, retaliatory and arbitrary arrests are among the main drivers of instability and civil unrest. Political prisoners include journalists, children and activists as well as persons officially designated as “hostages” by the state, a particularly abhorrent practice of imprisoning an individual in order to pressure a wanted family member. The comments came at a “Friends of Yemen” technical meeting, held in the hopes of instigating judicial reform, but if the state insists the judiciary is perfect, then there’s nothing to discuss.

SABA: No political prisoner in Yemeni jails, says minister

No political prisoner in Yemeni jails, Minister of Justice Ghazi al-Aghbari re-confirmed on Wednesday. In his meeting with the technical team of Yemen Friends Group over justice and security, the minister said that there are only detainees on charges of committing crimes and outlaw acts based on the 1992 law of punishments.

He pointed out to the outlaw elements that blocked roads, looting and burning public and private possessions under pretext of asking rights and freedom of expression, saying no law in the world authorizes to do such crimes.

The minister reviewed needs of Yemen that might friends of Yemen could support in field of judicial reforms in the country.

Alia al Wazir was stopped in the airport en route to a Freedom House conference and prohibited from leaving the country. No male escort (mahram) was the official reason, not that there’s a law on the books to that effect, and its likely due to the trial of her husband, UN employee Walid Sharaf al-Din, charged with communicating with Iran. The National Security can’t prevent al Qaeda from exiting and entering Yemen but they do a whopper of a job on the activists, journalists and civil rights workers. Update: the state hasn’t presented any evidence against al Din and his lawyers demanded the judge recuse himself. The trial has been continually postponed.

al Eshteraki: منعت سلطات مطار صنعاء الدولي زوجة معتقل في الأمن السياسي من السفر إلى بيروت يوم الأحد. Authorities banned Sana’a International Airport wife was detained in the political security of travel to Beirut on Sunday. (Read on …)

Ali Ibrahim al-Rahman was arrested when he went to visit his brother in jail in 2007, and later charged with involvement in the fifth war’s battle at Bani Hushaish, although he was in jail since the fourth war. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to three years in May 2009. In February, Ali was eligible for release counting time served, but he is back in the PSO prison and remains among hundreds of other innocents jailed in regard to the Sa’ada Wars.

Al Esheraki- Ali Ibrahim al-Rahman (21 years old) students and a Yemeni national who lives in the area Shoveler – the Yemeni capital Sanaa

2- تم اعتقاله قبِل ثلاث سنوات وتحديدا بتاريخ 14ابريل 2007م أثناء زيارته لأخيه عبد الخالق اِلسياني في اِلسجن المركزي بصنعاء بدون أي مسوغ قانوني ولا يوجد عليه أي تهمة 2 – he was arrested three years ago, specifically on April 14, 2007 during a visit to his brother, Abd al-Khaliq al-Saiani in the central prison in Sana’a, without any legal justification and there was no charge

3- تم سجنه في الأمن السياسي ومن ثم السجن المركزي لمدة عام تقريبا 3 – was imprisoned in the Political Security Central Prison and then for almost a year (Read on …)

AFP SANAA — A Yemeni court sentenced four southern separatists activist to 10 years in prison on Saturday for “harming national unity,” Saba state news agency said.

Abdullah Rajeh al-Yahari, Salem Ali al-Habshi, Nasser Mahfuz Baqazquz and Nasser Abdullah Bamithqal were convicted by a criminal court in Hadramut of “committing criminal acts aimed at harming national unity,” it said.

The list of charges included “violating the constitution, instigating armed rebellion, mobilising people to disobey constitutional authorities and the laws and spreading false information aimed at jeopardising peace and security.” The same court jailed Khalid Khamees Batalila to one year, followed by a year under surveillance, after convicting him of “chanting slogans that called for disobedience,” Saba said.

UPDATE: The sentence was one year ban from writing and three months imprisonment, RSF statement below the fold.

Yemen: Imprisonment And Suspension For A Year
Against The First Female Arab Journalist For Insulting the President

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said that on 16/1/2010 Yemen has witnessed the first female journalist to be sentenced to prison for insulting the president. Two years ago, “Anisa Mohammed Ali Osman” published two opinion articles : ” Bullying children.. by presidential orders” and “Power: A monster on the armless .. a blind mouse on enemies “. In addition , she was suspended from writing for a year and the editor of “AlWasat” newspaper where the articles were published, Jamal Amer, was fined to 10,000 Yemeni Rials. (Read on …)

This poor guy, who has the misfortune of being named Abdullah al Reimi, was picked up nearly two years ago in a case of mistaken identity. The Yemeni official media made the standard announcements (big al Qaeda arrest!) and the wires picked up it, but within days it was proven that it was the wrong guy. He’s finally getting out. The whereabouts of the real Abdullah al Reimi are unknown, last we heard he was in Dhamar preaching violent jihad at a mosque but that was years ago. The original reports on all of the above are on the site somewhere.

al Masdar

أفرج جهاز الأمن السياسي بصنعاء أمس الثلاثاء عن عبدالله غازي الريمي بعد اعتقاله “بالخطأ” لقرابة عاميـن نتيجة تشابه اسمه مع أحد المطلوبيـن أمنياً. Released the Political Security in Sana’a on Tuesday Ghazi Abdullah al-Rimi after he was arrested “by mistake” for nearly two years as similarity of his name with one of the wanted men. (Read on …)

Good!

News Yemen The U.S. Embassy in Sana’a has reaffirmed its support for freedom of press in Yemen.

On November 3, the U.S. Ambassador Stephen Seche met with al-Masdar Chief Editor Samir Jubran at the Embassy and discussed with him the recent ruling by the Special Court for Press and Publications against Jubran and the Yemeni-American journalist Munir al-Mawiri, a press release by the U.S. Embassy saidm on Monday. (Read on …)

They were only 10 years late on the first report.

Committee against Torture

The Committee against Torture this morning considered the second periodic report of Yemen on the efforts of that country to give effect to the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in the absence of a delegation.

Serving as Rapporteur for the report of Yemen, Committee Expert Nora Sveaass, began by noting that the initial report of Yemen had been considered in 2003, 10 years’ late; that there had never been replies to communications regarding follow-up to the Committee’s concluding observations on that report (although the report before them did undertake to respond to them); and that there had been no reply from Yemen to the Committee’s list of issues, sent to the Government six months ago, despite repeated reminders sent. They were now considering the report of Yemen without a delegation from the State party – a situation that was far from ideal.

Ms. Sveaass observed that the Committee had received reports on a lack of openness and transparency with regard to torture cases in Yemen, in particular a lack of willingness to receive information on allegations of torture, to undertake transparent investigations and to hold perpetrators accountable. According to the information before the Committee, draft laws and security laws were at the heart of that matter. In the course of the anti-terror war many persons had been detained and protests and demonstrations were very seriously met. There was also the issue of the practice of incommunicado detention, which appeared to be upheld under Yemeni law, as well as a number of reports of detentions without charges, or prolonged detentions without trials. Also alarming was that there appeared to be no mechanism to enforce the rights of detainees. A concern included hostage taking – reports that family members were abducted and held to ensure that a person sought would give themselves up.

This insane sentence is not only a punishment for the two journalists, Yemeni-American Munier Mawari and Samir Jubran of al Masdar, for daring to question the God-like wisdom of Field Marshal Saleh. Its also a message to the other journalists as was the kidnapping of Mohammed al Maqaleh. (The Committee to Protect Journalists has an article profiling Tawwakol Karaman and the drive for press freedom and civil rights in Yemen.)

News Yemen: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to end the intensifying judicial and media campaign to silence critical journalists and eradicate press freedom.

On Saturday, the newly established Press and Publications Court in Sana’a sentenced Munir Mawari, a Washington-based Yemeni journalist and contributor to the independent weekly Al-Masdar, to two years in prison on charges of defaming the president, journalists told CPJ.

The court also barred him for life from practicing journalism in Yemen. The court handed a suspended one-year jail term to Samir Jubran, editor of Al-Masdar, on the same charge and banned him from writing and running his newspaper for one year.

The case stems from a November 25, 2008, opinion piece in which Mawari called Saleh’s leadership style a kind of “weapon of mass destruction. (Read on …)

from the Yemen Post

Yemen sentenced on Tuesday four subversives to death and eleven others to 5-15 years in prison, a ruling that comes within a series of verdicts against armed groups that fought the troops in support for the Houthi insurgents last year. (Read on …)

It never ends. You can’t change reality arresting the journalists who report the news. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate stopped advocating for jouranalists since the last YJS election.

Referred the political security file colleague Fouad Rashid, editor of Al-Mukalla Press on behalf of the state security, Rashid was arrested on 5 – May forum Alkhisp cultural Mukalla and deposited the Political Security Prison in Al-Mukalla and Sana’a, transfer to 23.6.2009 and since his relatives were allowed to Sanaa yesterday 2/9/2009 visit did not allow non-relatives, journalists and activists to visit him or visit the rest of the detainees at the disposal of mobility in the southern governorates
On the same level appealed to the family of our colleague Iyad Ghanem, who has been in prison since the patience of the province of pilgrimage 1/7/2009 (Read on …)