Security court decides to hold opposition journalist for another month

A state security court in Sanaa decided on 25 June to keep Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani of the online newspaper Al-Shoura in pre-trial detention for another month. Al-Khaiwani has not appeared in court since being arrested at home on 20 June for supposed links with Shiite rebels operating in the north of the country. One of his lawyers, Khaled Al-Anesi, criticised the interior minister's refusal to allow anyone but his relatives to visit him. His lawyers have not been able to communicate with him since his arrest. ------------------------------------------------------------- 21.06 - Opposition journalist Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani back behind bars Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of opposition journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, in Sanaa yesterday reportedly in connection with alleged links to the Shiite rebellion in the north of the country. Several plain-clothes police officers went to the home of the former editor of the now closed opposition weekly al-Shura and arrested him without a warrant. His wife said that officers dragged him from his bed and took him away barefoot and in his pyjamas. The following day he was placed in preventive detention for one week. The journalist was reportedly questioned about links with individuals facing trial for “terrorist activities”, in detention in Yemen, who are believed to have mentioned his name during interrogation. He was also questioned about an article headlined “the goat that became a pharaoh”, which he planned to publish and which he had discussed with a colleague on the phone. “We urge the Yemeni authorities to urgently release this journalist. No charges have been made against him and it is obvious that he is being put under pressure to stop him giving a voice to Shiite rebels,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. Al-Khaiwani's lawyer, Khaled al-Anesi, told Reporters Without Borders that the prosecutor had refused all requests for bail even though the journalist had always presented himself whenever he had been summoned in the past. “My client is a well-known figure, who has never sought to escape justice,” he said. “He has been arrested in unacceptable circumstances and has at no time been informed of the reasons for his arrest.” Al-Khaiwani was sentenced to one year in prison in 2005 before being pardoned by President Ali Abdallah Saleh. He had been accused of using his writing to support the rebellion of the Shiite leader Badr Eddin al-Hawthi.