Why was Journalist Abdulellah Haidar Al-Shayae arrested?
Hood Organization Lawyer, Abdulrahman Burman: They did not find a single word, the device that was held to account was a laptop, we don't know if its his device or a similar one to his which was stolen when he was arrested by armed men from night until dawn. I called National Security and they denied that they arrested him, Political Security, CID, all the security devices denied that they had him. This means that there was an armed group that kidnapped him and stolen his laptop. We were completely surprised that the prosecutor has a laptop, there was no file or report in the case that proves where the laptop came from. The judge during sentencing based his ruling on Abdulellah on what was stated in the laptop; even the CD's, 380 of them were cartoons for his children. All the CDs did not even have one word against him. Everything that was found with Abdulelah from phones and such, do not carry any condemntion at all, everything that the judge based his decision on was from the laptop that was stolen by armed men. The evidence which the court used was a word document on the desktop which is a converstation between two people, the converstation did not indicate or explain who the conversation was between; Abdulellah's name was not mentioned neither is the other person that they claimed to be Anwar Al-Awlaqi. Of course, this court, as lawyers we boycotted as well as Abdulellah's insistence in boycotting it. Abdulellah was sentenced, I spoke to him and sent him more than one message to appeal the ruling but he refused and said that he would prefer to remain in prison than to return to the play that was formulated by state security services.
After that they sentenced him and the issue was over, and President was said issue a pardoned; which he did and directed the secretarial to print out an official memo to his release and pardon. Of course, they used to contact us from the presidential secretariat and ask us if we have a copy of the sentence so that they refer to when issuing the pardon, we told them that we do not have any copies. They issued the pardon and it was placed in a file in the Presidents office to sign it on the next day. Before it was signed by the President in a couple of hours, there were some talks between President Saleh and Obama as it was reported by western media and American media as well as Yemeni media; they reported that Obama expressed his dismay on President Saleh's decision to free Abdulellah Haidar Shayea. So far, Abdulellah is no longer in the Republic of Yemen prison, but now imprisoned by the order of USA President who hapered the release that was issued by the President.
Today we have a problem, which is the problematic health condition of Abdulellah in prison. He is suffering from serious health problems, notably he has knee pain and chest allergy; Red Cross visited him and decided that he should be transferred to the hospital. The prison administration agreed to transfer him to the hospital but handcuffed. Abdulellah refused, he said "I am a journalist and not a criminal, seems that you lied the lie and believed it. I am ready to go under any sort of security -guards- but to go to the hospital handcuffed, I would rather die in prison then to go in this way."
I made a request last week to Political Security to allow us to visit him and see his health condition, but unfortunately, Political Security Secretaria refused to even receive the request that we sent from Hood Organization to allow us to visit him. They claimed that their manager was not available. We even sent them the request by fax, and until this day from the past week we did not receive any answer or consent to visit.
This painful memory did not target Abdulellah Haidar but targeted all journalists and every person that spoke and wrote freely without seeing the consequences of what would him to him. We today, when standing in solidarity with Abdulellah Haidar, we are standing in solidarity with freedom of speech and all the liberal and honorable journalists.
After that they sentenced him and the issue was over, and President was said issue a pardoned; which he did and directed the secretarial to print out an official memo to his release and pardon. Of course, they used to contact us from the presidential secretariat and ask us if we have a copy of the sentence so that they refer to when issuing the pardon, we told them that we do not have any copies. They issued the pardon and it was placed in a file in the Presidents office to sign it on the next day. Before it was signed by the President in a couple of hours, there were some talks between President Saleh and Obama as it was reported by western media and American media as well as Yemeni media; they reported that Obama expressed his dismay on President Saleh's decision to free Abdulellah Haidar Shayea. So far, Abdulellah is no longer in the Republic of Yemen prison, but now imprisoned by the order of USA President who hapered the release that was issued by the President.
Today we have a problem, which is the problematic health condition of Abdulellah in prison. He is suffering from serious health problems, notably he has knee pain and chest allergy; Red Cross visited him and decided that he should be transferred to the hospital. The prison administration agreed to transfer him to the hospital but handcuffed. Abdulellah refused, he said "I am a journalist and not a criminal, seems that you lied the lie and believed it. I am ready to go under any sort of security -guards- but to go to the hospital handcuffed, I would rather die in prison then to go in this way."
I made a request last week to Political Security to allow us to visit him and see his health condition, but unfortunately, Political Security Secretaria refused to even receive the request that we sent from Hood Organization to allow us to visit him. They claimed that their manager was not available. We even sent them the request by fax, and until this day from the past week we did not receive any answer or consent to visit.
This painful memory did not target Abdulellah Haidar but targeted all journalists and every person that spoke and wrote freely without seeing the consequences of what would him to him. We today, when standing in solidarity with Abdulellah Haidar, we are standing in solidarity with freedom of speech and all the liberal and honorable journalists.
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