Armies of Liberation

Whenever I am considering retiring, some one beats up* al Khaiwani

and just pisses me off all over again.

Update, ripped shamelessly from Howie:

(Read on …)

Everything you need to know about the reality of Yemen but were afraid to ask:

I think calcified is a good word to describe “governance” in Yemen. Beyond the lack of transition of executive power for thirty years, the entire ruling class has also been in place for decades. At most, they trade positions now and then in an extremely profitable and deadly game of musical chairs.

Wow. Jay Nordlinger attended the Oslo Freedom Forum, the human-rights conference in the Norwegian capital and wrote it up for the National Review. Among the speakers was Abdulkarim al Khaiwani). Abdulkarim has won several prestigious awards for his dedication to his ideals and his courage, in between being repeatedly kidnapped, beaten, bugged, smeared and jailed. He’s also an extremely talented writer.

Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani repeatedly appeals for solidarity. I mentioned him in this journal a few days ago — he is the journalist from Yemen who has endured kidnappings, beatings, imprisonment, and other ghastly things. Here in theater, he says that “living in Yemen is like being trapped on a hijacked plane.” Elections are never fair, and the judiciary is directly controlled by the presidency. It is “dangerous” to be a journalist in Yemen, he says — as his life has proven.

He mentions the prominent American journalist Thomas Friedman. He expresses disappointment: saying that Friedman came to Yemen and stuck close to the government, his hosts, without “going into the streets” or “meeting any journalists.” (I have no idea whether this charge is true.) He then says, “I would like to salute the American blogger Jane Novak, who learned about Yemen and led an international campaign to free me. Jane restored my faith in human beings.” He pleads with journalists in free countries to keep an eye on their colleagues in unfree countries, and yell as loud as they can when those colleagues are in danger.

He closes his remarks by saying, “I have made it a tradition to write an article entitled ‘We Shall Continue’ every time I leave prison. And I say to you now, ‘We shall continue.’”

That’s a very nice salute. Actually I led two campaigns to free him, 2005 and 2008, but who’s counting? I had a lot of help from the other bloggers and HAMSA was incredible in the second campaign. Al Khaiwani is absolutely correct that if journalists with rights focused the spotlight on the brutal targeting of journalists with no rights, the world would get better much faster. Information is power, and journalists and bloggers give it to the people. And what do we have? Olberman. The US media entirely ignores the plight of their colleagues abroad when they could do so much so easily.

Update: full Arabic text below

Khaiwani Oslo: failed democratic experience in Yemen.
الإثنين 10-05-2010 01:36 صباحا Monday 05/10/2010 1:36

المصدر صحيفة النداء. Source newspaper appeal.
السلام عليكم.. Peace be upon you .. ونهاركم جميل كأوسلو Beautiful and a Good Kooslo
أولا أشكر منظمة العفو التي جاءت لتقديمي إليكم اليوم. First, I thank the Amnesty, which came to a presentation to you today.
- أولاً اسمحوا لي باسمي وباسم الصحفيين اليمنيين أن أوجه – First let me on my behalf and on behalf of Yemeni journalists to draw
الشكر لمنتدى أوسلو للحريات لإتاحة الفرصة لنقل واقع الحرب Thanks to the Oslo forum freedoms to allow for the transfer of the reality of war
التي تشن على الصحفيين اليمنيين. Being waged against Yemeni journalists. (Read on …)

IFJ : The IFJ President, Jim Boumelha, joined journalists in Yemen today in celebrating the presentation to their colleague Abdul Karim Al Khaiwani of Amnesty International’s Special Award for Human Rights Journalism under Threat.

In delivering the award during the 4th congress of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate in Sana’a, IFJ President Jim Boumelha praised the bravery and resilience that Al Khaiwani has shown during his long ordeal. “Abdul Karim is a very special journalist.” He said. “He is one of those rare breeds of journalists, some of the bravest and the most determined – those who are prepared to sacrifice their personal and professional lives for the public good and to put their future and even the future of their families and children at risk in order to ensure that our profession remains one of the strongest backbones of our democracies.” (Read on …)

Lets recall that al Khaiwani was arrested as a personal vendetta by Saleh, beat up, his kid slapped, interrogated for a week, released and then kidnapped and really beat up badly, convicted and imprisoned for months, pardoned and re-convicted and now pardoned again. (This is not even counting what happened to him in 2004/5.) Its like battered wife syndrome translated to the national level, yes its nice the abuse stopped momentarily but its important not to lose sight of the over-riding fact that it never should have occurred in the first place.

And the announcement about freeing the broadcast media is getting old also; its about the fifth time I heard that in the last five years, nothing happens. More talk, headlines and propaganda and when the dust settles, journalists are still getting beat up, no new licenses or as we saw recently, the new TV channel goes to al Zindani… So it would be nice if true but Saleh’s words are meaningless, so lets see what happens before celebrating this announcement.

Alarab

Yemen pardons opposition journalist facing jail

Yemen’s president said on Saturday he had pardoned an opposition journalist facing a six-year jail sentence for links to armed rebels. A Yemeni court last year convicted Abdelkarim al-Khaywani, editor of opposition newspaper al-Shura, to six years in jail after he was found carrying images and statements of the rebels.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced the pardon in a speech to a journalist union’s conference, in which he also called for new legislation to allow private television and radio stations and easing rules for the launch of new publications.

Battles with the Shi’ite Muslim rebels, which had raged on and off since 2004 in the north of the poor Arab country, subsided last year. Hundreds of people have been killed in the conflict and thousands have fled their homes.

Sunni Muslims form a majority of Yemen’s 19 million population, while most of the rest are Shi’ite Zaydis.

Several international journalists and rights orgs have made similiar statements on al Khaiwani’s behalf.

His Excellency Ali Abdullah Saleh
President of the Republic of Yemen
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen
3 February 2009

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum,
which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the
upholding of a six-year jail sentence against journalist Abdel Karim Al Khaiwani, despite a
presidential pardon having been granted to him in September 2008.
According to reports, on 26 January Yemen’s Special Terrorist Court upheld a 6-year jail sentence
handed down to Mr Al Khaiwani on 9 June 2008. Mr Al Khaiwani, former editor-in-chief of the
Al-Shoura newspaper, had received a presidential pardon in September 2008 and had also
received assurances from the Minister of Justice and other officials that the case had been closed.
He had not been summoned to give evidence to the Special Terrorist Court, nor had he been
notified that the hearing was underway. The court reportedly did not consider Mr Al Khaiwani’s
appeal against the initial sentence. (Read on …)

This poor guy al-Khaiwani gets targeted so much, he has his own catagory.Menassat

CAIRO, January 29, 2009 (ANHRI/IFEX) — The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) strongly denounces the 26 January 2009 decision by Yemen’s Special Terrorism Court upholding the initial sentence against prominent journalist Abdel Karim Al Khaiwani to six years in prison, originally leveled against him in June 2008. This decision is contrary to the presidential pardon the journalist received in September, and formal assurances from the Minister of Justice and other judicial officials that the case had been closed.

The court upheld the 6-year prison sentence against Al Khaiwani who was charged with being a member of a terrorist cell and part of the Al Houthi faction. According to Al Khaiwani, he had not been summoned to a court session and had not been notified that the trial was underway. Moreover, the court did not consider an appeal filed by the defense against the severity of the initial sentence passed on 9 June, despite the fact that the hearing had been documented by several local and international media. (Read on …)

In a stunning development Monday, Yemen’s Special Terrorism Court upheld the guilty verdict against journalist Abdulkarim al Khaiwani. The journalist had been pardoned by President Saleh on September 25, 2008 after spending months in jail.

Monday’s ruling affirmed Mr. Al Khaiwani’s conviction on the charges of “disseminating pro-rebel propaganda to local and foreign media” with the intent of adversely affecting “the morale of the military” and creating a social disturbance.

Mr. Al Khaiwani was the subject of a massive international campaign after he was arrested in July 2007 and falsely accused of “terrorism”. The state’s evidence consisted of journalistic materials-article notes and some photos. He was imprisoned June 9, 2008 after being sentenced to six years in jail. As the CPJ noted, “the case against al-Khaiwani was seen as retaliation for his criticism of the government’s fight against the rebels and his writing about government nepotism.”

Al Khaiwani was caught unawares by Monday’s ruling and expressed amazement at the outcome of the appeal trial. He noted that he had received a presidential pardon and formal assurances from the Minister of Justice and other judicial officials that the issue is closed.

Al Khaiwani said he did not receive any summons to attend the court hearing and had not received any notice of the continuation of the trial. “The court did not consider the appeal submitted by my defense relating to the change in the severity of the sentence after it was issued. We have documented with both audio and video evidence that the terms of sentence was increased after the original ruling in court,” he added.

Al-Khaiwani remains free at the moment and it is unclear what may follow; however the terrorism conviction is sure to substantially impact his future travels and employment.