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| Mohammmed al-Maqalih |
SANA’A, FEB. 7 — Yesterday, Sunday Feb. 7, 2010, was the first session at the Specialized Criminal Court against journalist Muhammad al-Maqalih, former editor of the socialist news site Al-Eshtiraki.net, who had been detained without charges for over four months in the political security prison.
The session took place under vague circumstances. To start with, the session was scheduled for ten a.m. and without prior notice to either the detainee’s lawyer or the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, took place two hours ahead of schedule at eight a.m.
“This is yet another example of the bias and discrimination against the journalist. The session was conducted without any legal representation of Al-Maqalih and we fear that he would not get the opportunity for a fair trial,” said Marwan Dammaj general secretary of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate who until recently was the only one from the media and civil society community who had been allowed to visit Al-Maqalih during his detention.
Until the time of writing this news, there is no information on what actually happened in the court session. The only information available was leaked from a source at the court that Al-Maqalih had refused to accept the judge sitting on his case and demanded his change claiming that the later carries a personal grudge against the journalist who almost a year ago had laughed during this judge’s verdict against another journalist. At that time, Al-Maqalih received a 20 day disciplinary sentence after being charged with contempt of the court.
“We had lobbied a great number of journalists and advocates to be present outside the court during the session. When we all came we were surprised to be told that the session was already over. We fear that the state has done this because it does not want us to see Al-Maqalih, who is probably in very bad health and has been severely tortured,” exclaimed Nabeel Subai’ journalist head of the training department at the YJS.
Even Al-Maqalih’s lawyer, Hael Sallam who was appointed by the prosecution complained that he was not informed of the case details or of the change in the session’s timing. “I don’t even know who raised the case against Al-Maqalih and what are the charges, and I don’t even have a copy of his file.”
Relative breakthrough
Despite the complexities and bias in the court procedures against Al-Maqalih, having his issue in the judiciary system is actually a breakthrough considering that he was abducted for around five months on a street in Sana’a on September 17, 2009 by men believed to be from the security forces.
Eyewitnesses said that he was taken by a group of plain-clothed men who arrived in a white minibus which had its license plates obscured. Since the abduction no one really knew where he was or how he was especially that government officials denied that the state is involved in his disappearance. However, it was only last Tuesday that his existence was made public as his issue was transferred to prosecution to be tried on charges of “sympathizing with Houthis”.
However during the interrogations, according to Dammaj who met with Al-Maqalih last week, the later refused the charges against him and demanded an investigation into his abduction.
“He was very thin and looked very ill. He told me that he had been tortured and went on a food strike for 16 days during his detention. He said that he had been beaten, starved as they gave him one terrible meal every three days, and did not allow him a change of clothes. He had been wearing the same blood stained clothes since his abduction,” explained Dammaj of what Al-Maqalih told him. “He said that they threatened twice to execute him and had been living under the gun point for 20 days consecutively during his four months detention.”
Dammaj demanded transferring Al-Maqalih to a hospital and releasing him on bail. Apparently, only two weeks ago was Al-Maqalih allowed to change his clothes as he was transferred from the political security prison to the national security prison.
Since his detention, Muhammad al-Maqalih’s family has staged a number of sit-in protests outside government offices, which have been attended by journalists and the general public.
Muhammad al-Maqalih is a member of the Yemeni Socialist Party and the former editor of its website. He is thought to have been detained for his comments on the government’s conduct in its conflict with followers of the late Zaidi Shi’a cleric Hussein al-Huthi in the northern governorate of Sa’da. Human rights activists in Yemen suspect his detention is linked, in particular, to his criticism of the army’s killing of civilians in Sa’da, which was published on the Socialist Party’s website.
Amnesty International believes that he is likely to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. If so, the organization demands that he be released immediately and unconditionally.