Journalist serving six-year sentence released by presidential directive

Reporters Without Borders hails today's release of journalist Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani as a result of President Ali Abdallah Saleh's intervention. Khaiwani, who was serving a six-year sentence on a charge of collaborating with rebels in the north of the country, had to sign an undertaking to abide by law in order to be freed. “We are delighted by the news of Khaiwani's release but we fear that the written undertaking he had to give to the prosecutor's office could hang over him like a permanent threat and jeopardise his journalistic independence,” Reporters Without Borders said. Justice minister Ghazi Chaif Al-Agbari told the government news agency SABA that a court approved a presidential directive suspending Khaiwani's prison sentence after he undertook to “respect the constitution and the laws in force.” A former editor of the newspaper Al-Shoura and a contributor to several independent news media, Khaiwani was sentenced by a Sanaa state security court on 9 June to six years in prison for allegedly passing information to Shiite rebels in northern Yemen. Despite having health problems, he was jailed as soon as the court issued its sentence. He was previously sentenced to a year in prison on similar charges in March 2005 but was given a presidential pardon the day after his conviction. He was arrested in June 2007 and was held for a month before being released provisionally on health grounds.